KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Saturday reconsidered “The Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021”, amid a strong protest by the opposition.
The Sindh Governor tagged objections to the recently passed the local government law, of which two have been removed, Sindh Local Government Minister, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah told the legislature.
The house immediately caught by the opposition parties’ protest against the reconsideration of the amendments to the law. They gathered in front of the Speaker chair, tore the copies of the bill and tossed up with raising chants against the Sindh government.
Despite the strong protest by the opposition parties the legislature once again adopted the amendments to the local government law with an overwhelming majority of the PPP.
The opposition held placards in hands and called the amendments “black” law before storming out of the house.
Objections of the Sindh Governor were removed by restoring the powers to the local government for the issuance of birth and death certificates.
The legislation reinstated the section regarding the show of hands rule for election of chairmen of the proposed towns and municipal committees.
The section on secret balloting for election of the chairmen of local bodies councils have been revoked. The amendments also restored the powers to the local government to run nine departments.
The minister said that an amendment made to the law on the tenure of the local government councils, besides the elected councillors will be taken on board regarding the Sindh Police affairs.
The concerned SSP will have to make liaison with the elected local government chairmen in line with the amendment made to Schedule of the Act. Reports on law and order and police affairs will have to be submitted to the councils.
However, no powers will be vested in elected councillors to deal with the prosecution, criminal cases and police administration.
The basic healthcare and primary and secondary schools officials will be bound to submit a quarterly report to the elected local government representatives.
Similarly, the district offices of sports, special persons, livestock and agriculture departments will be responsible to hand over reports to the local government councils.
Local Government councils will have one percent seat quota for transgender and special persons, each. Transgenders will also have representation in union councils, union, town and municipal committees. Amendment also passed to form towns in divisional head quarters.
Meantime, the opposition parties returned to the house and again started a noisy protest. The PTI and PPP lawmakers exchanged abusive words and resorted to fistfight. The assembly remained tense. The treasury also raised anti-PTI slogans.
Speaking on floor of the house following the law passage, Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah expressed anger over the protest and called the opposition parties “illiterate”. The law will be implemented within 10 days.
He said that the local Government Law represents pure aspirations of people of Sindh. He showed concerns over stoking ethnicity in the house, which he called “sad”. “Don’t spread ethnicity,” he told the house without naming any of the parties.
The house also adopted “The Sindh Factories (Second Amendment) Bill 2021” and “The Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill 2021”. Amid the opposition protest, the house prorogued.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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