Local Governments Dissolved

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced on Wednesday the dissolution of all local government institutions — from the city district governments to the union councils — and relieving of nazims by appointing administrators throughout the province.

He made this announcement at a crowded press conference at the chief minister’s house in the presence of the relevant ministers and representatives of the Pakistan People’s Party’s allied parties, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad and Awami National Party Minister Amir Nawab.

Responding to questions, the chief minister said all efforts of the government were aimed at holding elections within 120 days, most likely in May, under new local government laws which were being framed.

He said Fazlur Rehman, the secretary to the local government department, had been appointed administrator for the Karachi city government but in most cases district coordination officers and town municipal officers had been retained as administrators in their respective institutions.

He also said offices of the DCO and TMO had been merged into one designation of administrator who would run and supervise the ongoing projects.

These administrators would also be responsible for holding the coming local government elections in a fair and transparent manner. These elections would be conducted by the Election Commission of Pakistan under its rules in contrast to the three other provinces, Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan, where the LG election authority had been revived to conduct elections in accordance with the pre-2001 practice.

The chief minister said: “We have decided to hold elections under the election commission due to peculiar circumstances in our province.”Besides, he said, a new local government law was being framed based on good aspects of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 1979 and the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001 which besides reflecting the aspirations of the people should be able to resolve their basic problems at their doorsteps.

In reply to a question, the chief minister termed the appointment of administrators a step forward to providing relief to the people until newly elected nazims were installed.

Answering another question, he said efforts would be made for all possible seat adjustments with the allied parties in the government for contesting elections as under the amended law elections would be held on a party basis.

Besides Senior Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, LG Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and Katchi Abadis Minister Rafique Engineer were present at the press conference.

Local Governments Dissolved, Elections in Next 120 Days

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah dissolved all local governments in the province on Wednesday and announced that elections will be held within the next 120 days.

According to a notification issued by Sindh Government, district coordination officers have taken over charge from all district nazims. Lala Fazlur Rahman has been appointed as administrator Karachi while Aftab Khtari is to serve as administrator Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference at the CM house, Qaim Ali Shah said that local bodies' laws will be amended and ratified by the Sindh Assembly within the next 30 days while elections will be held in 120 days.

He said that all coalition parties have been taken onboard for the appointment of administrators and the new law will also be framed through consultation with all stakeholders.

City Nazim lays stress on single authority

KARACHI: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that Karachi cannot make sustainable development until the cantonment boards and other civic agencies are put under a unified authority.

“At present, various agencies are working independently, which is hampering development of the city,” the city nazim said at a meet the press programme of the Karachi Press Club.

“Unity of command is key to improved and sustainable economic and administrative development of Karachi, which is serving also the Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, the Middle East etc.”

Ardently maintaining that there should be a unity of command by a single authority, he sought the role of civil society and the media in this regard.

The nazim said he had been vocal in the past also in exposing the management problems of the city under 13 different bosses.

“I don’t say that heads of the Defence Housing Authority, cantonment boards or any other agency should withdraw from the land control on their areas, but they somehow should come to a central place for the sake of improved municipal services and provision of better civic amenities, water, power, sewerage, building control, town-planning and revenue resources,” he said.

The city nazim further recalled that a Supreme Court verdict in October 2007 had also corroborated the unity-of-command idea for bringing all stake-holders or civic agencies functioning in the city at one point as far as strategic planning and development of the city was concerned. However, some agencies, including cantonment boards, sought a review of the verdict.

Kamal, however, said now the CDGK was preparing to get the review petition vacated.

He said he and his colleagues in the city government served all sections of the population in every nook and corner of the city.

He spoke about infrastructural and amenity development projects undertaken during the last four years and expressed the hope that the people assuming leadership after him would continue to care for the dynamics of development in the city.

While work on bridges and flyovers for the signal-free Corridor-4 had already been launched, preparatory work for Corridore-5, from Sohrab Goth to M. A. Jinnah Road, was also in progress, he said.

25 INCLUDING 5 MQM WORKERS, A HAQ PARAST UC NAZIM MARTYRED IN KARACHI TWIN BLASTS:
A motorcycle rigged with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Azadaraan near the Nursery bridge in Karachi Friday, killing 12 people while a second explosion inside Jinnah Hospital left at least 13 people dead. Nearly 100 people were wounded in the twin blasts, reports said. Martyred include six MQM workers who were in the hospital to donate the blood and assist in rescue operation.

“Twelve people were martyred and 50 injured in the first blast. There are children and women among the killed and wounded,” Dr. Seemin Jamali, Head of the Emergency Department at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, said.

An hour after the first attack, a second explosion was heard outside the emergency ward of Jinnah Hospital where the injured were being shifted. The second blast was also caused by an explosives-laden motorcycle in the hospital's parking lot that left at least 13 people dead, while many others were injured, a bomb disposal official Munir Sheikh said.

The building of the hospital and three ambulances were also damaged by the blast, which took place ten metres away from the main gate.

Another bomb was found inside a television outside Jinnah Hospital, DawnNews reported. The bomb disposal squad said that 25 kg of explosives were found inside the television.

The attacks, in a city largely isolated from bombings concentrated in northwest Pakistan but with a history of sectarian tensions and political violence, underscored the security challenges facing the country.