The People’s Local Government Ordinance, 2012 for Sindh, promulgated in an unusual hurry, is being condemned by all the allies of the PPP (with the exception of the MQM). The alienated allies complain that the PPP did not consult them before cutting a deal with the MQM. This raises the question why an Ordinance was considered necessary at all when the matter could have been debated in the Sindh Assembly to try and forge a consensus? Two, what was the hurry in promulgating an Ordinance that midnight oil was burnt for it? Three, why have only five cities in Sindh been chosen for metropolitan administration and the rest left to make do with another system? Four, would not this dual system exacerbate the urban-rural divide in Sindh? Five, why is the MQM being accommodated at this point when general elections are hardly a few months away? Six, why would there be two systems of governance running in parallel, the commissionerate and the metropolitan? These questions highlight some of the flaws in the scheme that the government, in its anxiety to keep its alliance with the MQM intact, has announced while throwing considered reflection and rationality out the window. All allied parties, including the ANP, PML-F, PML-Q and the nationalist parties in Sindh have rejected the Ordinance, calling it a betrayal of the coalition and a slight to the unity of Sindh. The PPP has responded to the criticism by saying the Ordinance is not the last word on the subject and is open to debate and amendment. That makes the hasty and ill considered Ordinance all the more inexplicable. The resentment among the allies of the PPP in Sindh against the Ordinance has been manifested in their resigning from ministerial slots and staging a walkout from the Senate and National Assembly in the ongoing sessions. The strongest reaction has come from ANP, which is contention in Karachi with the MQM and feels threatened by the political advantage that will accrue to the latter if it is allowed to refurbish its grassroots support through the ‘metropolitan’ system of local government. The Save Sindh Committee has already given a call for a national level strike on September 13. All other parties in the province will be joining the protest. According to the Save Sindh Committee, it is an extra-constitutional and illegal Ordinance. There is weight in that argument since the Ordinance discriminates between two classes of people on the matter of local system of governance and will further alienate the rural (Sindhi) areas, who already feel they are treated as second-class citizens in their own country. The People’s Party has been badly advised to accede to local bodies elections at this time and in this manner through an Ordinance. It seems illogical to lose allies who have consistently stood with the government all these years, especially now when general elections are close by. The matter can still be resolved as the Local Government Minister of Sindh, Agha Siraj Durrani has said that instead of amending the Ordinance, why not get a fresh mandate from all the allies? That would prevent the Ordinance being seen merely as a two-party pact, and bring the alienated allies of the PPP back on board. The last thing the PPP needs is to molly coddle the MQM, right or wrong, to such an extent that what it gains on the swings, it loses more than on the roundabouts. *