KARACHI, Feb 6: The city district council strongly criticized on Wednesday the language of a letter written by an official of the Sindh local government in which the provincial local councils have been advised to refrain from passing resolutions concerning honorarium to their members.

Criticizing the language used by the provincial local government department’s deputy secretary (administration) in his letter sent to heads of different tiers of local councils, the council resolved to write a letter to the official informing him of the council’s reaction to his letter, and a copy of the same would also be sent to the National Reconstruction Bureau for its perusal.

The official in his letter has, among other things, stated: “No honoraria can be given to members of local councils in view of the huge expenditures involved and the limited resources of the councils. However, DA for attending sessions is allowed to members. Accordingly, all the local councils of Sindh are advised to refrain from passing such resolutions (concerning honorarium) which will bring further constraints on their financial resources and also invite public criticism.”

Defending the city council’s earlier resolution in which it had demanded honorarium for its members, a member of the council, Siddiq Rathore, said it “is in every one’s knowledge” that UC Nazimeen and the city councillors were working hard to make the new local government system successful and to help solve the people’s problems at their doorsteps.

Quoting Clause Q of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001, he said this clause authorized Zila Nazim, Naib Nazim, Taluka Nazim, Naib Taluka Nazim, Town Nazim, Naib Town Nazim, Union Nazim, Naib Union Nazim and members of the councils to receive honorarium and travelling and daily allowances from their local funds.

Abdul Rasheed Baig said the language used in the letter claimed that the Sindh bureaucracy was twisting and misinterpreting rules and regulations concerning honorarium to members of the councils.

Another member of the council, Saeed Ghani, said it was amazing to note that, on the one hand, the city councillors were being asked not to approve resolutions concerning their honorarium and, on the other, members of National and provincial assemblies were being paid hefty allowances, besides a huge amount was also being spent on buying new cars and furnitures for the ministers.

Opposing any honorarium for the city councillors and other public representatives, a member of the house from Landhi’s Union Council No 2, Javaid Azim, suggested that in a poor country like Pakistan not only councillors but even prime minister, federal and provincial ministers voluntarily refused any honorarium/salary, because their salaries and heavy perks were a huge burden on the national exchequer. The amount thus saved be spent on the people’s welfare, he added.

The council, by another unanimously-approved resolution, demanded of the city government to set up a football academy in Lyari for the promotion of the game which, unlike cricket, hockey and squash, had not received official patronage.

By another resolution, it urged the city government to encourage footballers of the city, particularly those from Lyari, to form their football teams.

A heated debate over the KBCA’s recent act of demolishing houses belonging to a brother of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town’s Nazim was continuing when the session was put off to Saturday by Muslim Pervaiz, who chaired the Council’s Wednesday session in the absence of the convener of the house, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan.