Daily Times

The Sindh government, on Thursday, has given its approval of forming a new district in the Keamari area by splitting Karachi’s District West.

The Sindh cabinet meeting held under the chair of Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, has approved to make Keamari Town as seventh district of Karachi.

The cabinet recommended to include areas of SITE, Baldia and Harbour into district Keamari and also proposed to make Maripur as another new district.

There are currently seven sub-divisions in District West, Karachi and it is the second-largest district in Sindh according to population-wise, the cabinet told.

During the meeting, CM Murad Ali Shah proposed to rename District South in Karachi with South Karachi. “The districts in the city should be named after their popular areas,” suggested Murad in the meeting.

The cabinet members also put forward a suggestion to divide Khairpur into two districts.

While the CM Sindh has directed Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah on Thursday to appoint interim local body administrators on being informed that the tenure of all local bodies in the province will end on August 29, 2020.

The administrators will fulfill the duties of local councils till new local government elections are held, decided the provincial cabinet.

CM Sindh said that the provincial government was working on a new local government system and will make new amendments.

It is pertinent to mention here that with the addition of new district, number of the administrative districts has gone up from six to seven including South, West, East, Central, Malir, Korangi and Keemari districts.

The Korangi District was also created by the PPP government in 2013 to make the port city “manageable”.

On the other hand, the MQM-P and PTI have opposed the formation of new district in Karachi.

MQM-P will challenge PPP’s decision of a new district in the court, said Faisal Sabzwari.

“Lahore, Multan and other big cities are based on one district,” he said, adding that the PPP is trying to bring its “fake mandate” in Karachi. he added

MQM leader accused PPP of continuing to disintegrate the metropolis.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Khurram Sher Zaman said that his party also rejects the Sindh cabinet’s move.

“New avenues of making money are being introduced,” he claimed, adding that they “doubt the intentions” of the PPP.

Before this Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has demanded that Karachi to be restored as one district like it was in 2013 as it was the only solution to the problems of the metropolis.