LG system cease operation in Sindh after expiry of four-year term

(Karachi) The operation of all local councils, offices of the mayors, deputy mayors and all elected and nominated representatives of Local Government ceased functioning after expiry of the four-year term, media reported on Monday.

According to the notification issued by Sindh government, the elected and nominated people shall be responsible to settle individual liability, and return assets.

As per law, the Sindh government is bound to hold LG elections in three months. No preparations, however, have been made for the polls so far.

Four years ago, the LG elections were held on the directives of the Supreme Court. Earlier, the city's affairs were run by the administrator as no elections were held after 2009.

The former Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, belonging to MQM-Pakistan, took oath as mayor on August 30, 2016 at Karachi Central Jail where he was incarcerated for facilitating hate speech and involvement in the May 12. He was named in 39 cases and imprisoned after an ATC rejected his bail plea that July.

Before his release in November, then deputy mayor Arshad Vohra assumed mayor’s office. Vohra was removed from the post in 2018 after he left the MQM to join former nazim Mustafa Kamal’s PSP.