KARACHI, The Pakistan People's Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the two major coalition partners in Sindh, were apparently so eager to send the local government institutions packing that they neglected to amend some key clauses of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001 which have been suitably amended or entirely omitted by other provinces in their local government bills to avoid legal implications, it emerged on Thursday. Analysts familiar with the laws that govern the local government system say that the Sindh Local Government (amendment) Bill, 2010, which has become an act, is incomplete since it is silent about two important sections of the SLGO, 2001, which deal with the tenure and installation of local governments.
They say the government's decision to dissolve the local government institutions in pursuance of the amended Section 179-A of the Sindh Local Government (amendment) Bill, 2010 could be challenged in the superior courts because the dissolution was in clash with what was envisaged in Section 159 (1) of the SLGO, 2001.
Section 159 (1) of the SLGO, 2001, which is about the term of office, reads “The term of office of local governments in a district shall be four years commencing from the date of the notification of assumption of office by respective Councils Provided that a local government, notwithstanding the expiry of its term of office, shall continue to hold office until the successor local government assumes office.”
However, Section 179-A of the Sindh Local Government (amendment) Bill, 2010 allows the provincial government to, for the purpose of holding next local government election, dissolve all the local government institutions and to appoint administrators in place of nazims, till newly-elected nazims take the oath of their offices.
Similarly, Section 150 (4) of the SLGO, 2001 clearly states that “the election to the local governments shall be held after every four years so as to enable their installation on the 14th day of August of the year in which elections are held”.
However, the analysts say, sub-Section 5 (a) of the amended Section 179-A of the Sindh Local Government Bill, 2010 is in contravention with Section 150(4) of the SLGO, 2001.Sub-section (5)(a) of Section 179-A of the Sindh Local Government (amendment) Bill, 2010 states “On dissolution of the Local Governments and Councils, the Government shall within 30 days request the Chief Election Commissioner for holding the elections of Local Governments in a time frame not exceeding 120 days from date of appointment of Administrators. (b) The elections of the Local Governments shall be conducted under this amendment or new enactment. In case any new law is not passed, the elections shall be conducted under this amendment. In any case, the Government shall ensure elections within 120 days within the scope of clause (a) above”.
As Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has already announced that the next local government elections will be held in May, the analysts maintain that despite holding an early election, the new local governments could not be installed before Aug 14 due to Section 150(4) of the SLGO, 2001.
The analysts are of the view that if due to any reason the government fails to hold the election within 120 days, Section 159 of the SLGO, 2001 would automatically stand activated and the local government system which was in place before the appointment of administrators would become revived.The analysts say that apparently the Sindh government or the PPP and the MQM acted in haste to wrap up the local government institutions.
Referring to the Balochistan Local Government (amendment) Bill, 2010, they say it omitted Sub-section 4 of Section 150 of the Balochistan Local Government Ordinance, 2001 and amended Section 159 (1) of the BLGO, 2001 regarding the term of office of local governments through its newly-passed Bill to avoid legal hitches.
The analysts say that the Punjab and NWFP governments also acted wisely and did not leave any major lacuna in their respective local government (amendments) bill, 2010.
“We may only assume that either they (PPP and MQM) are incompetent and have no team of legal and constitutional experts or they are so desperate to dissolve the previous local governments that they did not pay attention to legal aspects of certain sections of the SLGO, 2001, which is still in force,” said a source.
The coalition partners already faced embarrassment when Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan had to promulgate an ordinance to pave the way for the appointment of local government officers as administrators within seven days of his assent given to the Sindh Local Government Bill, 2010, which was passed unanimously by the provincial assembly on Feb 15.
