Citizens hoping that restoration of local government system 2001- first to Karachi, Hyderabad and subsequently across Sindh will solve their basic problems, saying the just overridden commissioner system was meant to empower the bureaucracy against the public interest.
Civil society members analyse the recently scrapped SLGS as an utter anti-people system wherein commissioner and deputy commissioners were not entitled to be answerable to public. Commissioner Karachi was administrative head of the civic affairs but he had kept himself aside from the citizens' miseries as no civic and development work had been seen in small tenure of overridden commissionerate system.
He just sat in commissioner's office instead of attending office at Civic Centre. Business Recorder learnt that during last five weeks of commissionerate system, former Commissioner Karachi completely failed to materialise even his announced short-term projects.
Defunct commissionerate system had introduced a project of renovation and cleaning of rainwater drains ahead of monsoon but it just remained in doldrums as 90 percent drain nullah in city were narrowed with garbage. The salaries to KMC workers had also not been paid. The commissioner system had totally failed to provide any relief to consumers during Ramazan. As during the overridden commissioner system, consumer saw no action in the shape of effective price control campaign, fine or arrests for overcharging.
In the absence of any price check, the vendors charged over 100 percent for some hot selling items. Sindh government had also extended special magistracy powers to Deputy Commissioners and Sub-Divisional Magistrates, but inflation-struck masses in city remained at the tug end. Additionally, giving magisterial powers to deputy commissioners is in violation of the separation of the judiciary and executive, a Sindh government official told Business Recorder.
The Ex-Commissioner Karachi had also announced to begin to celebrate Pakistan's foundation day from 8th August to 14th August but no preparation had yet been seen on grounds. Business Recorder learnt that a local newspaper reporter, having no appreciably experience of media management and public relations, has been assigned as Director Media Management and Public Relations while serving Director Public Relations and media management was transferred and posted to other department, showing blatant example of nepotism in defunct bureaucratic commissioner system.
Critics believed that local bodies system has advantages, especially when it comes to how it empowers the basic administrative unit of the union council. Ultimately, a system of local governments is a system where government becomes a useful and valued additional feature of the virtual world, and is the only practical system of governance in an open-sourced environment, they added.
On the other hand many political leaders termed the restoration of SLGO-2001 as auspicious move. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has termed the implementation of the local government system 2001 in the entire province of Sindh as heartening. He said that steps taken by the government will strengthen democratic norms, and an atmosphere of brotherhood will prevail in the province. Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat-Ulemae-Islam and others also lauded move and hoped that positive effects of the system will permeate to the common man.