KARACHI, July 10: A team of representatives from federal government, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and NGOs held a meeting here on Thursday with the Nazims of union councils of Karachi as part of their series of dialogue with the chiefs and other officers of the city, town and union councils.

The UC Nazims told the team that the union council level governance was rudimentary in nature, called ‘union administration’. It consists of just two-member staff — a secretary of grade-5 and a peon — both of whom are non-technical and not well-versed with rules and regulations. They claimed that due to the problem, people faced hardships in getting their grievances addressed expeditiously.

The Nazims suggested appointment of grade 16 and 17 officers to run the UC affairs as mentioned in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), who could deal with the people’s affairs with authority and responsibility. They were of the view that the UCs should also be delegated additional financial and administrative powers. Benefits of the system would emerge fully only when the UCs were duly empowered, they stressed.

Mentioning that there was no coordination between the city government and town administrations which contributed greatly to the hardships faced by the people, the Nazims maintained that they were helpless in this regard as they did not have adequate powers to assist the aggrieved.

Women councillors, agreeing that woman folk was given rightful representation in this system, complained that they had been vested with no powers. This, they said, should be determined now. They also presented many demands which included separate offices and staff for them, as well as special budget for women welfare, in order to ensure woman folk’s full participation in social welfare activities.

The team also held separate meetings with district officers of education, health, accounts and budget sections besides officers of the water and sanitation (W&S) and works departments. —PPI