The Local Government System in Sindh: A Critical Analysis of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013

Abstract

The politics of ethnicity across rural and urban Sindh and the fact that it includes Pakistan’s economically and demographically biggest city Karachi makes a robust local government system essential for Sindh. Karachi and Hyderabad, the two urban centres of Sindh have been dominated by Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) the political party of Mohajirs, the descendants of non-Punjabi immigrants from India, while the smaller towns and rural areas are dominated by the Pakistan People’s Party, the representative party of the indigenous Sindhis. Since Musharraf’s alliance with MQM in 2002 and his changes in Sindh Local Government system to facilitate MQM, the local government system in Sindh has remained a major bone of contention between MQM and PPP on one hand and the Mohajir and Sindhi communities on the other. In this background, this paper is an attempt to study the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 and analyse how far this Act resolves the question of local government in Sindh. Moreover, what kind of administrative and political devolution is provided under 2013 act? And how ethnic identity politics plays out in the local governance in Sindh?