A ruckus was witnessed in the Sindh Assembly on Saturday when the contentious Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed again, with a few amendments to the original draft, amid an uproar by opposition members and a scuffle between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers and treasury members.
In the bill, among the major changes conceded by the ruling PPP were removing the clause to elect any person (and not just elected members) as the mayor, deputy mayor, chairperson or vice-chairperson. The clause mandating elections for these posts through secret ballot was also removed.
The bill, which was initially passed amid the opposition’s absence during a session last month, primarily takes away functions of education and health from municipal bodies. It also abolishes district municipal corporations in urban parts of the province, replacing them with town municipal corporations.
The bill has been rejected by the opposition, which had boycotted the assembly proceedings in protest when it was first presented. However, the ruling party in the province, the PPP, had got it passed amid the opposition’s absence in the same session on the basis of its numeric majority, following which it was sent to Sindh Governor Imran Ismail for his assent. Ismail had, however, returned it to the Sindh Assembly for reconsideration.
When the bill was presented again Saturday by Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah before the House for reconsideration, opposition members stood on their seats and shouted slogans, such as “robbery on rights is unacceptable”, and tore up copies of the agenda.
They gathered in front of the speaker’s rostrum as the bill was passed, with the chair asking the protesting members to move to a side as he was unable to see Nasir moving the bill. And Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh went on to dub the bill “a black law”.
In his speech, Nasir said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had met Governor Ismail on the matter and the objections raised on the bill had been addressed.
