KARACHI, Oct 30: Amid an opposition boycott of voting, the City Council approved a resolution on Tuesday allowing the city government to form a public limited company with an initial capital of Rs500 million.
The resolution was approved despite the fact that the majority of the treasury members and none of those sitting on the opposition benches have any idea about the role of the city government in the public limited company. The resolution was moved by treasury member Sher Afgan Khan.
The council meeting began at 3pm with Convener and City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil in the chair.
The resolution was moved under Section 131 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO-2001), which allows any council to try other resources to increase its revenue.
The house was informed that the city government would hold the majority of the shares in the public limited company and it would offer 49 per cent of the shares to the public. The reserve capital of the company would be Rs500 million, which might be increased in future.
The money, generated through public offering, would be utilised on development projects and welfare of the citizens. The price of a share of the company would be Rs10.
The opposition members, who were not convinced about the formation of the company, wanted full details of the proposed project. However, without deliberating further on the issue, the house approved the resolution.
Initiating the debate, leader of the Al-Khidmat panel Rafiq Ahmed asked for the full details of the project before the house as according to him, Rs500 million was not an ordinary amount. He also asked who would run the company.
Leader of the Opposition in the City Council Saeed Ghani also sought details of the company. He was concerned about the security of the public money.
Senior presiding officer Masood Mehmood said that as the shares would be floated in the market, the city government would have enough revenue to complete and initiate more development projects.
The convener intervened and stopped further debate on the issue and asked for a vote, saying that the members should adopt a progressive approach for the development and prosperity of the city.
The Haq Parast members -- on the basis of their majority in the house — managed to pass the resolution while the opposition members refrained from voting.
The house also approved a resolution to award a contract to the highest bidder of Rs25 million, received in the auction held on Aug 13 for the year 2007-08, for collecting road service and maintenance charges from the link road connecting the Super Highway with the National Highway.
Another resolution to increase the daily allowances from Rs300 to Rs640 for the members of the City Council equal to BPS-17 (UC nazims, naib nazims and members) attending the session was also approved unanimously.
Honoraria raised
The house was unanimous in passing another resolution presented by Mirza Sajid Baig to increase the monthly honorarium of City Council members from Rs7,000 to Rs10,000. The same resolution had been passed by the previous city council but could not be implemented.
Besides an increase in the honorarium of the City Council members, the monthly honorarium of the city nazim has also been increased to Rs50,000; honorarium of the city naib nazim has been increased to Rs40,000; town nazim’s honorarium increased to Rs25,000; town naib nazim’s increased to Rs15,000; UC nazim’s increased to Rs10,000; UC naib nazim’s increased to Rs4,000; UC councillor’s increased to Rs3,000 and the honorarium of members of the town councils has been increased to Rs5,000.
City Council members will get an increased honorarium from Jan 29, 2005.