KARACHI, Aug 20: With the passage of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, the role of deputy commissioners and commissioners in local government affairs has been ended, said the chief law officer of the province on Tuesday.
“As compared to the 1979 LG law that made the DCs/commissioners the controlling authority, the SLGA 2013 has ended their role in local affairs,” said Advocate General for Sindh Khalid Jawed Khan.
He said that this was a significant departure from the old law.
He told Dawn that the local councils would have their own employees but officers from grade 17 and above would be appointed through the Sindh Public Service Commission. Thus as compared to the existing practice, the provincial government has ‘given up its powers’, he claimed.
Mr Khan said that in addition to powers/functions given to the mayor/chairmen of corporation and councils in the 1979 law, the new law gave more authority to the people’s representatives at the grassroots level.
For instance, he said, though all provincial departments would be under the control of the Sindh government, yet the corporation/councils would have a ‘consultative role’ especially in primary education and primary health.
Similarly a master plan would be initiated or prepared by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, but it would be subject to the approval of the provincial government.
For water supply, drainage, rain emergency, etc, the KMC and district councils would have ‘all political, administrative and financial powers’ to deal with the same, believed the AG.
Furthermore, he said, the local councils had been empowered to take cognizance of alleged misconduct of bureaucrats or any other issue. But this would be done only when the council through a resolution with a majority vote recommended to the Sindh government. The provincial government would be bound to pass an order within a stipulated period or give plausible reasons in writing for not taking any action.
“This is a significant power given to the KMC/district councils, which no other province has so far given to their local councils,” he claimed.
The chief law officer also said that the local government elections would be held on a party basis.
The AG said conditions for contesting the election for the councillor would remain the same as for any candidate contesting election for a provincial or national assembly seat. However, a few changes had been made in the SLGA, 2013. For example, he said any person with 21 years of age could contest the council’s poll in Sindh.
Punjab has fixed 25-year age-limit for a person to contest the LG polls.
“One more new thing in the SLGA, 2013 is the retention of the provincial finance commission (PFC) of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001 to decide distribution of funds among districts,” he said.
The PFC would follow multiple criteria for distribution of funds between the government and the councils out of the proceeds of the provincial consolidated fund such as ‘population, backwardness, need and a performance of a council’.
The chief law officer of the province said that the SLGA 2013 also suggested setting up of a provincial local government commission (PLGC) for checks and balances against the councils.
The PLGC, which would recommend action against any misconduct or misappropriation of funds, would be headed by the LG minister and two MPAs, each nominated by the leader of the house and leader of the opposition, and two technocrats as its members.
A regular audit as well as special audit of the councils would be conducted by the Auditor General of Pakistan.
The SLGA, 2013 also talked about access to information, which was not mentioned in the 1979 law. Anyone may seek any information from the councils, which would be bound to respond within seven days.
About the structure, the AG said that there would be only one metropolitan corporation and mayor in Karachi. Besides, there would be five district municipal corporations in the city. There would be district councils led by a chairman in rest of the districts, he added.
In urban areas, union committees would be the basic unit and each would comprise of nine elected members, including chairman and vice chairman, four general members and one each for woman, labourer or peasant and minority.
He said that there would be an estimated 178 or 179 union committees in Karachi. The chairman and vice chairman of each union committee would be the member of the KMC and DMCs, respectively. They would select 22 per cent women, 5pc each minority and labourer members on reserved seats, who would elect mayor, deputy mayor, chairman/vice chairman.
There would be one district council for the rural areas of Karachi with nine union committees and the same procedure would be applied for its structure.
While in rest of the districts, wards would be the basic unit whose members would determine the election of chairman or vice chairman of district councils.
