JI takes protest against local govt bill to Sharea Faisal today

The Jamaat-e-Islami’s sit-in outside the provincial assembly, where they have been protesting against the Sindh government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) over the controversial local government bill, entered its 16th day on Saturday.

The religious party will also hold a protest rally on Sharea Faisal on Sunday (today) afternoon as part of its strategy to try to pressurise the PPP into rescinding the recently passed LG bill.

Besides a large number of people, delegations from various organisations and the rural areas of the province visited the sit-in to express solidarity with the party and share their own respective ordeals.

Addressing the protesters, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said Karachi is called a mini-Pakistan because people from all ethnic backgrounds live in this city. “The PPP should withdraw the law if it is serious and sincere about the megalopolis.”

Following a deadlock that persisted for five days after the negotiation committee was formed, JI leaders and a delegation of the provincial government had met on Friday to discuss the disputed bill.

However, even after the second round of talks that lasted over three hours, both sides failed to reach an agreement that could have prompted the JI to end its sit-in.

Provincial ministers Nasir Hussain Shah, the PPP’s Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi and Tariq Hasan, the former deputy mayor and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s Sindh president represented the government, while the JI was represented by its Karachi leaders Usama Razi, Muslim Pervez, MPA Abdul Rasheed and Saifuddin Advocate.

The PA’s main gate had also been opened after 15 days on Friday when the JI delegation had entered the building of the legislature for the negotiations.

Talking to the media after the second round of the meeting, Rehman said his party’s leaders had handed over a list of demands to the committee representing the provincial government.

The major demands include direct election for the post of mayor, forming union councils in Karachi in parity with other areas of the province, placing the Karachi Development Authority and other development institutions under the LG set-up, placing all the city’s educational and health institutions under the mayor.

Rehman said the JI’s demands are in line with the country’s constitution. “Karachi has lost its infrastructure and glory under the rule of the PPP’s government in Sindh.”