In an important development, the Sindh government on Thursday approved creation of seventh district in Karachi. The Sindh cabinet meeting, held here under the chair of Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, has approved to make Keamari Town as seventh district of Karachi. The cabinet approved to include areas of SITE, Baldia, Harbour and Maripur sub-divisions into district Keamari. The cabinet was apprised that there are currently seven sub-divisions in District West, Karachi and it is the second-largest district in Sindh according to population-wise. During the meeting, CM Murad Ali Shah also proposed to rename district South as ‘Karachi District’. “The districts in the port city should be named after their popular areas,” suggested Murad in the meeting. The cabinet members also put forward a suggestion to divide Khairpur into two districts. Speaking over the local government institutions, Murad said that Sindh was the only province where local government institutions have completed five-year term. “We [Sindh government] allowed Mayor WaseemAkhtar to work freely with all resources and supported him for the uplift of metropolis,” said Shah. He said that the provincial government was working on a new local government system and will be presented in Sindh Assembly after making amendments. On the other hand, the MQM-P, PakPakisTehreek-e- Insaaf (PTI) opposition parties in Sindh Assembly, have opposed the formation of new district in Karachi and decided to challenge it in the court. It is pertinent to mention here that with the addition of new district, number of the administrative districts has gone up from six to seven including South, West, East, Central, Malir, Korangi and Keamari districts. The parties have decided to confront creating of ‘7th district’ in Karachi by the Sindh government. PTIand MuttahidaQaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) strongly opposed the approval of the ‘7th district’ in the port city. The MQM-P lawmakers decided to move to the court against the Sindh government’s decision for the creating of ‘Keamari district’. The decision was also rejected by the top leadership of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Pak-Sarzameen Party (PSP). PSP chief Mustafa Kamal announced in a press conference that his political party will organise a protest outside Karachi Press Club (KPC) against the controversial decision of the Sindh government.
