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Government of Karachi is the body which runs the city of Karachi. Presently Government of Karachi refers to the Karachi Local Government system comprising mainly of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation which is headed by a Mayor and a Deputy Mayor.

City District Government (CDGK) 2001-2010

President Musharraf in 2001 enacted a new system of Local Governance in Pakistan in the form of Local Government Ordinance (LGO 2001) which provided grounds for the making of a very powerful Government of Karachi system. The mayor of Karachi was empowered to take many decisions for the city management and had financial independence. After the 2008 when new government took over, it abolished the Local Government Ordinance and abolished the Government of Karachi on 14 February 2010.

Office of the Mayor

Since Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was directly placed under the supervision of Mayor of Karachi, the Mayor's office was situated in Civic Center, Karachi

Power of the Mayor

Under LGO 2001, the powers of the Mayor of Karachi included Master planing, KW&SB, KBCA, KDA, the funds were directly accessable by the mayor, Karachi revenue Department, Karachi Land registry. The powers of the Mayor didn't include Law Enforcement etc, and the Mayor still had to get fundings from the president of Pakistan.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) 2013

After the gap of six years, the Government of Karachi has been finally restored by the Supreme Court of Pakistan orders which made provinces conduct new local government elections and as a result, Karachi Government has been formed on 30 August 2016.

Elections

The elections for the Karachi Government were held on 5th December 2015.

Office of the Mayor

According to the new local government system (SLGA 2013) the KDA has been removed from KMC and brought under the provincial government. Since then the office of the mayor is located in KMC building.

Power of the Mayor

According to the new SLGA 2013, the powers of the mayor have been greatly reduced and Mayor is virtually made powerless. KDA, KW&SB, KBCA (renamed to SBCA), Karachi revenue, Karachi land registry, KMTA, transportation (now SMTA), KSWMA (now SSWMA) have been taken away from KMC and merged with KDA. KDA itself has been divided into Malir and Lyari Development Authority. The Mayor now has to ask Sindh Government for the funds, and has to form a joint account with the commissioner of Karachi without whose signature, the funds can't be utilised. The Commissioner of Karachi has parallel role in ruling Government of Karachi as opposed to CDGK, where the role of commissioner was made honorary.

The independent observer organisations like PILDAT, FAFEN argue that not granting adequate powers to the mayors is the direct violation of Article 140(A) of the Pakistani Constitution.

City Counsel

The City Counsel in situation in the KMC building

After six years The Karachi city counsel held its first meeting on Monday, 3rd October 2016, the meeting was presided by the Deputy Mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra as the emprisoned Mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar was disallowed by Sindh Government to appear for the meeting from central jail despite ATC issuing NOC (No Objection Certificate). The 308 members of the Karachi City Council participated in the meeting. The Counsel in its first meeting urged the relevant authorities to allow the Mayor to preside the next meetings based on under trial prisoner (UTP)

Due to increased number of members and unavailability of space, City counsel passed resolution for new city counsel building to accomodate required members. on 3rd October 2016

Changes in Local Government System

Karachi City Municipal Act (1933 - 1976)

The City of Karachi Municipal Act was promulgated in 1933. Initially the Municipal Corporation comprised the mayor, the deputy mayor and 57 Councillors.

Sind People's Ordinance (SPO 1972)

In Sind People's Ordinance of 1972 (amended in 1976), provision was made for the establishment of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). In 1976, Karachi Municipal Corporation was upgraded to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. The administrative area of Karachi was a second-level subdivision known as Karachi Division, which was subdivided into five districts: Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West and Malir.

On the Contrary to its latest and amended version in the form of 'Sindh Local Government Act 2013', the 1972 Ordinance provided ample authorities and powers to the Mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation including Master planning, building control, town planning, development etc.

non party based elections were held for a brief period of ten years(1979-1988). In 1992 after culmination of mayoral tenure of Farooq Sattar, the elected mayor system was abolished and the appointed Administrator System was implemented during 1992 - 2001.

Sindh Local Government Ordinance 1979

This act was passed by Army dictator General Zia ul Haq which restricted role of mayor

Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO 2001)

In January 2000, under Pervez Musharraf Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO 2001) was passed

The government of Pakistan designed a new devolution of financial resources and responsibilities. This plan abolished the earlier second-level division and merged the five districts of Karachi into a Karachi District. When the devolution plan was implemented in 2001, this district officially became a City District, with the City District Government of Karachi handling its government.

Under CDG Karachi had a three-tier federated system, formed by

The City District Government (CDG) Town Municipal Administrations Union Council Administrations

The City-District of Karachi was divided into 18 Towns governed by elected municipal administrations responsible for infrastructure and spatial planning, development facilitation, and municipal services (water, sanitation, solid waste, repairing roads, parks, street lights, and traffic engineering), with some functions being retained by the CDG.

The towns were sub-divided into 178 localities governed by elected union councils (UC's), which were the core element of the local government system. Each UC was a body of thirteen directly elected members including a Nazim (mayor) and a Naib Nazim (deputy mayor). The UC Nazim headed the union administration and was responsible for facilitating the CDG to plan and execute municipal services, as well as for informing higher authorities about public concerns and complaints.

SIndh People's Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO 2012)

Local Government Ordinance passed by Sindh assembly proposed creation of five metropolitan corporations Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas. It divided Karachi into Five districts. The Ordinance was promising and provided good powers and authorities to the Mayors, but it was was shortly discarded by Sindh Assembly of Feb21, 2013.

See also

• Mayor of Karachi

References

1. "'Mayor not a convict, should be allowed to attend sessions'". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
2. Recorder, Business. "KMC Council for allowing Waseem to attend session | Business Recorder". Business Recorder. Retrieved 2016-10-04. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)

• Government of Karachi