Karachi: ‘Government may divide the city into 6 districts’

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani said that the government is considering bifurcating Karachi into six smaller districts and added that other districts including Hyderabad and Larkana, which the previous government had divided into several districts, will be restored to their original form. Talking to the media outside the Sindh Assembly, he revealed that this plan was discussed in an important meeting held in Islamabad on Tuesday in which officials and ministers of all four provinces participated and reviewed the proposed changes to the local government system. Durrani said that Larkana, Hyderabad and other districts have their own historical importance and the decision the previous government made to divide these districts was not fair, hence, the current government will soon restore these districts to their original forms. “The government is also considering a recommendation to bifurcate Karachi into six smaller districts,” he revealed. However, Durrani went on to say, “No final decision has been made so far, but all four provinces have given their recommendations in the proposed local government system changes. The recommendations of all four provinces are almost the same and after compiling these recommendations, we plan to give a detailed briefing on the matter to the prime minister and the president,” he added. He refuted the general assumptions about the government planning to completely remove the local government system. He went on to say that the system is around 150 years old and has prevailed in Pakistan under various names during different government tenures. Durrani stated that the government is not planning to dispose of the local government system but is planning to bring back the commissionerate system so that masses, at the grass root level, may get some relief in terms of the revenue collection, price control and land use departments. “People confuse the commissionerate system with the local government system, they are in fact two separate and different systems,” he added.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg12_1