Daily Times

The challenge to arrest the worsening conditions of living in the urban centers in Sindh, indeed, is gigantic and beyond the capacity of the cash-strapped, mismanaged and poorly equipped local bodies. With the myopic leadership at the helm, and their dwindling administrative and financial powers, these local bodies cannot do more than their current patchwork of street cleaning and drain de-silting, dispensing salaries and pensions, defraying the expenses of the bungalows of elected and even non-elected leaders and, of course, feathering their nests.

Towns have been expanding in a haphazard manner since decades bringing enormous pressure on the existing meager facilities of water supply, education and healthcare, roads and streets and sewerage. The rate of migration from villages to towns is high due partly to the want of education and health facilities in rural regions. This unplanned migration could be arrested by providing reasonable education and health facilities in villages and revisiting the tenancy laws to secure the livelihood of peasants and labour. The local bodies or the Sindh Building Controlling Authorityshould fully enforce their town planning regulations to discourage haphazard growth of towns.

The huge growth in the number of auto-rickshaws, donkey carts and pushcarts has been quite risky for the pedestrians particularly for the old men, women and children. The streets are overcrowded; the concept of footpaths has become alien to us; encroachment on streets, drains, and municipal lands a norm of life. The local bodies could pass laws to register and regulate the number of auto-rickshaws, donkey carts and pushcarts against a nominal fee. The scheme will add to their revenue and ease traffic congestions. The existing encroachments could be regularized against heavy monthly rents and new ones sternly discouraged.

The drainage system in almost all the towns has totally collapsed endangering the health of the populace. There are no disposal outlets for the sewerage water. The drains remain full with sewerage water and overflows on streets. Every town needs to have its sewerage system re-sketched and redone with disposal outlets and sewerage water treatment and Reverse Osmoses plants for safe drinking water. As shown in a report prepared by the Supreme Court Water Commission a couple of years ago, the sewerage water of the big towns like Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and Kotri is disposed off into canals which supply drinking water to the villages downstream. This water polluted by the sewerage of urban centers plays havoc with the health of huge rural populations.

Afflictions the education and healthcare suffer from are more complex and are linked with the growth of population and need holistic approach for years together to show signs of improvement

The re-planning and building an efficient sewerage system is not a difficult task nor too expensive. The Sindh Government, over the past few years, has allowed a substantial portion of its developments fundsto lapse and return to the Federal exchequer. The Sindh Government should think of hiring the services of the NESPAK or any Engineering Company within the country or from abroad to do the task.

The interference of the Members of the National and the Provincial Assemblies and Senators in the transfers and postings of district officers in all departments should be discouraged. At present, the elected MNAs, MPAs and Senators try to have officers of their choice in their districts so that they should remain at their beck and call. Z.A. Bhutto discouraged the interference of even the provincial Ministers in the administrative functions of the district officers. He had constituted Coordination Committees of the local PPP leaders for Larkana and other towns. The Committees suggested schemes for the development of the towns. Deputy Commissioners and Administrators of the Municipal Committees had full independence in the performance of their responsibilities.

The practice of involving the MNAs and MPAs in development schemes in their regions was introduced by dictator Zia ul Haq as a way of influencing their decision to condone his act of subverting the Constitution and imposing Martial Law in the country. In most of the cases, these funds are swindled, mismanaged or expended in the regions falling within the estates of influential landlords and local politicians. The interests of common populace are not taken into account. The roads from our villages or farms to main roads were built about four decades ago with funds allocated by the Asian Development Bank. These roads have broken and developed big potholes. It is impossible to drive on these roads without any serious risk to the health of one’s vehicle. The constituency returned Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto and Faryal Talpur in the past and veteran Shaban Mirani in the elections of 2018. Nadir Khan Magsi has the privilege of representing the constituency as MPA since 1988.

In thorough devolution of powers from the Provincial Ministers to the Municipal and Town Committees and District Councils down to the village Union Councils, the development funds should be placed at the disposal of the local bodies to carry out public well fare projects without any discrimination under the overall supervision of the district administration. This would make it necessary to cover the works carried out by the local bodies at various tiers with strong systems of audit and accountability. This devolution of powers would be compatible with the spirit of the 18th Amendment which our PPP leaders do not tire of showcasing as the greatest achievement of the party’s 5-year term in Islamabad.

Afflictions the education and healthcare suffer from are more complex and are linked with the growth of population and need holistic approach for years together to show signs of improvement. As immediate measures, the black sheep should be shunted out from education; teachers’ unions banned; students’ unions restored; the present infrastructure from primary to high schools improved; copy culture and selling and buying of grades punished severally and merit for admission in universities enforced forthwith. The Medical Superintendents of hospitals should be given full powers to administer the functioning of their hospitals. The province needs to have more medical complexes to meet the needs of the growing populations.However, posting doctors of good reputation as Medical Superintendents to weed out corruption and adequately equipping and funding the existing facilities would be easier.

The writer was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books