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MQM on local govt
PPP, MQM meet again on local govt with little to report
KARACHI:
A core committee meeting of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was held on Thursday with key representatives of both parties.
The meeting was part of a series on a local government system for Sindh, which has been under discussion since 2009.
Earlier this month, President Asif Ali Zardari had reassured MQM chief Altaf Hussain that the local government system would be reinstated soon. At the time, the party’s deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar had told The Express Tribune that the MQM had a number of reservations. One of the issues being discussed was the functioning of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
“The legislation was discussed point by point as well as on devolution and the functions of different departments,” according to MQM’s Wasay Jalil. “There is an agreement on some points and differences remain on the same. We will be discussing this at a meeting tomorrow (Friday) as well.”
Once the negotiations are complete, the major principles will be discussed by the party’s senior leadership and the legislation will be presented in the Sindh Assembly. The negotiations are also factoring in the impact of the 18th amendment to the constitution, which devolved key areas to the provinces from the centre.
The MQM and the PPP have gone head-to-head on this issue in the past, resulting in the MQM breaking away from the coalition government last summer. It rejoined the government on the federal and provincial levels in October 2011. The PPP’s stance is that it wants to continue with the 1979-era system of local governance; however the MQM has expressed a degree of willingness to incorporate some of its elements into a new draft but wants to stick with the Local Government Ordinance of 2001 as a foundation.
However, it remains unclear as to what the timeline of these meetings are and when one can expect a solid outcome. There is also no schedule for when the government plans to hold local government elections, since it approached the Supreme Court on August 6 in connection with a Sindh High Court order on the subject.
Article 140-A of the Constitution of Pakistan states that, “Each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local government” and that “Elections to the local government shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.”
In its short order on a petition filed by a former nazim, the Sindh High Court gave the Sindh government 90 days to hold local elections. However, the government has approached the Supreme Court since it says that it has not received a detailed judgment on the subject.
Among those who attended the meeting on Thursday were Sindh Senior Education and Literacy Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani from the PPP and MQM’s Dr Sattar, Sindh Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed, Kanwar Naveed Jamil and Wasay Jalil.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
MQM efforts to resolve differences with rival and opposition parties(APC)
MQM-ANP meeting
Following MQM chief's proposal for all political parties to sit together and chalk out a line of action to dealing with internal and external threats facing the country, MQM leaders having been reaching out to different parties to elicit support for a roundtable conference.
During the last few days, MQM delegations have called on President Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi, Jamaat-Islami head Munnawar Hussain in Lahore, and Awami Muslim League president Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in Rawalpindi. The party's requests for meetings with PML-N, PTI and JUI (F) have remained unanswered. But in a pleasant surprise, an ANP team not only met with a MQM delegation, it also gave an enthusiastic response to the latter's proposal for a roundtable conference. On his party's behalf, ANP leader Senator Haji Adeel also accepted MQM invitation for a visit to its famous Nine Zero address in Karachi.
The meeting between the MQM and the ANP was the best news in a long time. Although, both parties have been together in the same coalition at the Centre and in Sindh for the last four-and-a-half years, all along they have remained engaged in fierce turf battles in the nation's commercial hub, Karachi. Such has been the antipathy between them that ANP would disown MQM as a coalition partner, insisting instead it was an ally of the PPP only. Criminal elements associated with both these parties as well as the PPP have been exploiting the situation, unleashing ceaseless violence and other crimes in the city. That the worsening law and order in Karachi has had something to do with the alliance partners' power politics is obvious from the fact that during this government's initial years violence would subside each time the three partners assembled to address the issue.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2012
PPP, MQM meet again on local govt with little to report
KARACHI:
A core committee meeting of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was held on Thursday with key representatives of both parties.
The meeting was part of a series on a local government system for Sindh, which has been under discussion since 2009.
Earlier this month, President Asif Ali Zardari had reassured MQM chief Altaf Hussain that the local government system would be reinstated soon. At the time, the party’s deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar had told The Express Tribune that the MQM had a number of reservations. One of the issues being discussed was the functioning of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
“The legislation was discussed point by point as well as on devolution and the functions of different departments,” according to MQM’s Wasay Jalil. “There is an agreement on some points and differences remain on the same. We will be discussing this at a meeting tomorrow (Friday) as well.”
Once the negotiations are complete, the major principles will be discussed by the party’s senior leadership and the legislation will be presented in the Sindh Assembly. The negotiations are also factoring in the impact of the 18th amendment to the constitution, which devolved key areas to the provinces from the centre.
The MQM and the PPP have gone head-to-head on this issue in the past, resulting in the MQM breaking away from the coalition government last summer. It rejoined the government on the federal and provincial levels in October 2011. The PPP’s stance is that it wants to continue with the 1979-era system of local governance; however the MQM has expressed a degree of willingness to incorporate some of its elements into a new draft but wants to stick with the Local Government Ordinance of 2001 as a foundation.
However, it remains unclear as to what the timeline of these meetings are and when one can expect a solid outcome. There is also no schedule for when the government plans to hold local government elections, since it approached the Supreme Court on August 6 in connection with a Sindh High Court order on the subject.
Article 140-A of the Constitution of Pakistan states that, “Each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local government” and that “Elections to the local government shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.”
In its short order on a petition filed by a former nazim, the Sindh High Court gave the Sindh government 90 days to hold local elections. However, the government has approached the Supreme Court since it says that it has not received a detailed judgment on the subject.
Among those who attended the meeting on Thursday were Sindh Senior Education and Literacy Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani from the PPP and MQM’s Dr Sattar, Sindh Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed, Kanwar Naveed Jamil and Wasay Jalil.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
MQM efforts to resolve differences with rival and opposition parties(APC)
MQM-ANP meeting
Following MQM chief's proposal for all political parties to sit together and chalk out a line of action to dealing with internal and external threats facing the country, MQM leaders having been reaching out to different parties to elicit support for a roundtable conference.
During the last few days, MQM delegations have called on President Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi, Jamaat-Islami head Munnawar Hussain in Lahore, and Awami Muslim League president Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in Rawalpindi. The party's requests for meetings with PML-N, PTI and JUI (F) have remained unanswered. But in a pleasant surprise, an ANP team not only met with a MQM delegation, it also gave an enthusiastic response to the latter's proposal for a roundtable conference. On his party's behalf, ANP leader Senator Haji Adeel also accepted MQM invitation for a visit to its famous Nine Zero address in Karachi.
The meeting between the MQM and the ANP was the best news in a long time. Although, both parties have been together in the same coalition at the Centre and in Sindh for the last four-and-a-half years, all along they have remained engaged in fierce turf battles in the nation's commercial hub, Karachi. Such has been the antipathy between them that ANP would disown MQM as a coalition partner, insisting instead it was an ally of the PPP only. Criminal elements associated with both these parties as well as the PPP have been exploiting the situation, unleashing ceaseless violence and other crimes in the city. That the worsening law and order in Karachi has had something to do with the alliance partners' power politics is obvious from the fact that during this government's initial years violence would subside each time the three partners assembled to address the issue.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2012
