KARACHI: The provincial assembly on Tuesday carried an amendment to the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, increasing the local government seats reserved for women from 22 per cent to 33 per cent.

Besides, five per cent seats reserved for the youth have been included in the local government along with five per cent seats for non-Muslim community members and labourers or peasants.

The Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 was one the three bills pertaining to the Sindh Local Government (Second, Third and Fourth Amendment) Act, 2013. However, the consideration of the two other bills seeking further amendment to the act was deferred till Wednesday. Also, as many as 17 lawmakers across the floor participated in a discussion on three quarterly reports of the finance department regarding current budget expenditure, its utilisation and pre-budget proposals for the annual budget 2016-17.

Referring to a previous amendment to the local government act, Senior Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro recalled that the previous amendment was rejected by the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan also upheld the verdict of the high court. He said the house had carried the amendment to change the procedure of elections to the offices of mayor and chairman of local bodies by show of hands instead of secret ballot. While the Supreme Court agreed that it was within the assembly’s power to change the procedure, it was declared a violation of the law as the amendment was made after the announcement of the election schedule.

Local government amendment bill also allows five per cent seats reserved for youth

Following the adoption of the amendment bill on Tuesday, Mr Khuhro took up another amendment bill for consideration. But it was deferred till Wednesday after leader of the opposition Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan sought clarification regarding Section 18-A of Sindh Act No XLII of 2013 citing that the copy of the SLGA-2013, which was provided to him, did not carry Section 18-A that was to be revived. He said the Supreme Court had given time till April 29 as such consideration of the two other bills should be deferred till Wednesday so that the opposition could get time to read and consider the omitted section. Besides, he said, it was not appropriate to carry out legislation in haste. The issues being confronted to the province ought to be solved through collective wisdom, he added.

Thar commission report

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan demanded that the report of Thar commission be tabled in the assembly.

Speaking on a point of order raised by MQM lawmaker Mohammad Hussain, he regretted that the commission was the outcome of a discussion in the assembly but the assembly came to know about its report through media although the chief minister had vowed to present the report in the house.

Mr Hussain drew attention of the house that the Thar commission report had been made public by the media but it was not presented in the assembly. In this report, he said different provincial departments had been held responsible for the Thar situation along with bad governance. In the report, he said, almost all the points, which had been pointed out by the opposition, were raised.

Senior Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah said he could not say how this report was released to the media as it was submitted to the chief minister and only he could explain about it.

Pre-budget discussion

The house, which was called to order by deputy speaker Syeda Shehla Raza in the absence of Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, at 11am, witnessed discipline throughout the session in which 17 lawmakers participated in a discussion on quarterly reports of the budget 2015-16 and budget proposals for the next financial year.

MQM lawmaker Mahmood Razzaq initiated the discussion by saying that only Rs11.22 per cent of the development budget was spent during the nine months which was regrettable. Heer Sohu said that not a single rupee was released for 263 schemes out of the 590 development schemes. She said funds were released only to those departments where corruption was rampant. She also questioned the release of Rs11 billion for subsidies, grants and to write off loans.

PPP lawmaker Rehana Leghari said Sujawal was made a district some three years back but only Rs93 million had been released for the district since then. She said special development package be announced for the new district.

MQM lawmaker Mohammad Arshad Khilji said the approved budget by the assembly was modified by the bureaucracy. MQM lawmaker Syed Waqar Hussain said the people of Sindh could not be hoodwinked any more with mere slogans.

PPP legislator Khairunnisa Mughal said infrastructure schemes of water, sewerage, educational institutions be included in the new annual development programme.

Dr Sohrab Khan Sarki highlighted the need for monitoring development schemes.

MQM lawmaker Raana Ansar said the Hyderabad city was totally ignored in the development schemes. PPP lawmaker Shahnaz Begum said it was wrong to claim that the PPP government had ignored Karachi as work on mega projects was in progress.

MQM lawmaker Dr Zafar Ahmad Kamali said Rs32 billion was spent on the health department but condition in all hospitals continued to be miserable where neither doctors nor medicines were available to the patients. Rs101 million was spent on the Mirpurkhas Medical College but there was no building on the ground, he added.

PML-N lawmaker Syed Amir Haider Shirazi said that Thatta district had historical importance yet it was totally ignored in the budget with the result that it gave a look of devastated city.

PPP lawmaker Allah Bukhsh Talpur said that Badin was totally neglected where 80 per cent schools were in dilapidated condition. Waryam Faqir of the PML-F said the roads and major arteries and link roads in Sanghar were in bad shape.

MQM lawmaker Mohammad Hussain and Deewan Chand Chawla also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016