KARACHI, Jan 8: The Sindh Bachayo Committee announced on Tuesday that any move by the government and its coalition partner to make cosmetic amendments to the controversial local government law in order to merely report to the apex court that objectionable clauses have been removed would not be acceptable to the people of Sindh who would fiercely oppose it.
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting of the committee, SBC convener Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said that the people of Sindh would only accept the repeal of the Sindh People’s Local Government Act, 2012 because the law was aimed at benefiting only the two parties in power. Informing newsmen about the decision made in the SBC meeting, he declared that SBC supporters would besiege theSindh Assembly if the government tried to get an amendment bill passed from the house.
Mr Shah welcomed the directives of the Supreme Court for preparing new electoral rolls after verification in Karachi and appealed to the people to extend full cooperation by enrolling eligible voters and removing wrong entries from the lists.
He also urged all political parties to furnish their proposals to the election commission at the earliest for new delimitation of constituencies in Karachi in accordance with the SC directives.
He strongly criticised the government for its ‘incompetence’ to deal with people’s problems.
He held the government responsible for creating crisis after crisis for the common man, who was not getting wheat flour after electricity and CNG. He also referred to the death of over 525 children in Sindh due to measles and demanded that Sindh health minister resign.
Mr Shah also criticised a decision of the Sindh government to place the services of a senior officer of the Sindh police to the establishment division following his statement before the apex court in which he conceded that there was not let-up in targeted killings and extortion.
The SBC chief also called for removing illegal barriers and no-go areas in Karachi and appealed to the government to create a free political atmosphere in Karachi, where every area was accessible to all parties.
In reply to a question, he said that the new LG law was not based on devolution of power.
He explained that in case of metropolitan corporations, the law caused centralisation of power, while powers of municipal corporations, like Tando Muhammad Khan, had been reduced to the level of tehsil council in the new LG law.
Mr Shah said that the SBC favoured devolution up to the union council level.
He said that the new LG law had been orchestrated by the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement only for their own benefit.
He said that the huge rally organised by the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional in Hyderabad in December had sent a clear message that the LG law was not acceptable and the government should repeal it. He said that the SBC would continue to pursue its one-point agenda of repealing the LG law and in this connection its next public meeting would be held in Nawabshah on Jan 24.
In reply to another question, he welcomed the agenda of Allama Dr Tahirul Qadri, but termed it ‘vague’.
He said that Allama Qadri had failed to explain his strategy of implementing his reform agenda.
Jam Madad Ali, Nusrat Seher Abbasi, Sanan Qureshi and Qamar Bhatti were present during the press conference.