President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday directed the Sindh PPP to set up boards at the Tehsil and district levels to select candidates for taking part in the forthcoming local bodies' polls, to be held in the province on party basis. The President stated this during his meeting with PPP's parliamentarians in the Sindh Assembly who met him at the Chief Minister's House here.
Briefing the newsmen about the meeting, spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said the boards would comprise party legislators, office bearers and ticket holders belonging to the respective areas. The President said the PPP manifesto and the Charter of Democracy required that local governments should be elected and the polls should be held on party basis.
He said the local government was a provincial subject in the Constitution and the federal government had no say in the matter. However, the dictatorship had usurped this power and included it in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution forbidding the provinces from making any changes in the law without prior approval of the President.
The President disclosed that in September last, the provinces had approached him for approval to dissolve the elected Nazimeen of the local bodies and appoint unelected administrators instead as the power to do so rested with the President at the time. However, he refrained from doing so and waited till December 31 when the subject of local bodies stood transferred to the provinces under the Constitution and they were free to make any changes they wished even without the President's approval.
The President said that after December 31, the provinces were free to devise their own local bodies' schemes in accordance with the Constitution and the law and their own peculiar requirements. However, the PPP believes the local bodies should be elected institutions and that was why it had decided to hold party based polls in the Sindh in four months, he said.
President Zardari said that the government was laying emphasis on providing housing to the poor and on building road infrastructure and irrigation canals to address the problems of underdevelopment and unemployment. The President advised the provincial government and the MPs to explore ways and means to benefit the people from the new economic policy framework adopted by the government.
This policy framework, the President said was based on reliance on public-private partnership as an engine of economic and industrial growth, making the workers partners in development projects and adopting trade instead of aid for overcoming economic problems.
"We are also seeking greater access to international markets for Pakistani made products to enhance the country's trade," Farhatullah Babar quoted the President as saying, adding that it would boost industrial production create additional jobs. The President informed the Party MPs that the government had taken up very forcefully the concept of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) with the international community.
"We hope that it will soon be translated into reality and drive the industrial engine in the country". The President said the government will also distribute free the state owned agricultural land in the command areas of the new dams among the poor women. It is just one measure designed to empower the women, he said adding that the bill, which he signed early this morning into law was another measure to protect women from harassment and make them feel more secure.
He said that the Benazir Income Support Programme and the smart card had also been designed to empower women besides eradicating poverty. Through Waseela-e-Haq programme, more than 700 families are taken out of the poverty trap every month, he said. The President said building housing units for the poor in Sindh had been planned and recalled the handing over of keys and certificates on Thursday to the poor women of the small houses built for them on their lands.
The President said as a result of the policies, the economy had turned around, the Stock Exchange had bounced back; investors were showing confidence by investing in infrastructure projects and foreign investors were showing interest in stocks and power sector. During the meetings, which lasted for over three hours the MPs of Sindh Assembly expressed views on a host of issues including the local bodies polls, development projects, the overall political situation, coalition matters in the province, party matters and the law and order situation.
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