Mayor calls for changing local govt law

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar has asked the prime minister, the chief justice of Pakistan, the Sindh chief minister and the Sindh minister for local government to review Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2013 and make amendments in it through consensus among all stakeholders.

He said this while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Municipal Corporation’s old building on Saturday along with chairmen of districts and elected members belonging to all parties. He said the chief minister should be serious in making amendments to Sindh Local Government Ordinance –(SLGO), so that the law could become better.

Akhtar said the present system was not being properly managed and amendments should be made for improving the performance of the local governments.

He stated that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) was not performing well and it was not its job to lift offal. He added that landfill sites were too far from the city and this took time in dumping offal during Eidul Azha.

He suggested that landfill sites should be made in the districts next year as offal-lifting would always remain an issue.

He said that Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani at a press conference said there were three million families and the population of Karachi was shown to be 16 million in the latest census.

The mayor said there should be a population census in Karachi, which had a population of 30 million living in six million houses. He demanded that resources be giving to Karachi as per the population shown by census.

He also demanded an audit of the SSWMB, as its expenses were far higher than the expenses made by the DMCs to lift offal during Eidul Azha.

The mayor mentioned that during Eidul Azha, District Central and District Korangi lifted offal timely. He added that the system in Karachi had to be changed and 27 agencies working in the city had brought about a parallel system.

He also asked for bringing all these 27 agencies under one umbrella, as without doing this confusion would prevail.

Akhtar stressed that all works earlier done by the KMC were now under the Sindh government and a project director was performing duties which were supposed to be done by the mayor. He said that in District Central alone, more than a million animals were sacrificed during Eidul Azha.

The mayor said he was ready to cooperate with the Sindh government for the betterment of the province, including Karachi.

He said that if the parallel system continued, then improvement in Karachi was not possible. Referring to the Octroi Zila Tax, he said that we are getting Rs6 billion per year. However, the revenue should be Rs12 billion and wondered where the rest was of the revenue was. DMC Central Chairman Rehan Hashmi, DMC East Chairman Moeed Anwar AND DMC West chairman Izhar Ahmed Khan were present on the occasion.