Mayor asks government to tranfer 6 departments to KMC

Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar asked the Sindh government today (Thursday) to transfer some departments and services including KW&SB to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in exercise of powers conferred to the government by the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. In a letter to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah he said the absence of local authority will retard the development of municipal relationship between citizens and the state.
The mayor said Karachi, the world's seventh largest city, is deprived of the right to carry out essential municipal functions. He demanded that functions of urban planning, including housing and town planning, regulation of land use and construction of buildings, water supply and sanitation, conservancy and solid waste management, urban transport and mass transit, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Building Control Authority, Karachi Development Authority, master plan development and town planning and urban transport and mass transit be transferred to the KMC in exercise of powers conferred to the government by Section 74(b) of SLGA, 2013.
He said the constitutional development from encouragement of local government institutions (Article 32) to a constitutional duty (Article 140A) to establish the local government system is a marked departure from the past. The creation of local governments based on the constitutional directive to devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local government is a giant leap forward.
He argued that Article 140A does not envision the local government as being nominal, residual or merely symbolic anymore but a real empowered stakeholder and a breeding ground for deeper and more public-responsive politics. He said the term "local government" literally means management of local affairs by people. It is based on the principle that local problems and needs can best be addressed by people of each locality rather than by federal or provincial governments.
Without a clear vesting of certain core functions with the local government, it will be unable its role for democracy to deepen, for diverse opinions and legitimate interests to be taken into account, for service delivery to be closer to and held accountable by the people, for institution to build capacity and expertise. Local government institutions have to be empowered and given definite functions-they are not envisioned by Article 140A to be underling of the provincial governments but a distinct and empowered third tier of elected governance.
Demographic configuration determines the structure of state, to satisfy each significant group of people, their participation in the administration/affairs of the state is essential. Different tiers of government-federal, provincial and local-offer this opportunity to every substantial group of people, some accommodated at federal level and others at provincial and local levels, thus satisfying them all.