Political parties and activists are protesting in Pakistan’s southeastern province of Sindh after the provincial government plans to pass a controversial local government bill that critics claim aims to curtail the powers of local bodies and municipalities.

A large sit-in, staged by the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), entered the fourth day on Monday, demanding rollback of the bill, which is also facing the heat from the country’s central government. Certain provinces of the bill have sought rolling backing of existing administrative, financial, and political rights of the Karachi Municipality. 

Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, Karachi chief of JI, who is also heading the protest, said that the protest was aimed at taking back the usurped rights of the people in Karachi and other areas of the province.

"If the government attempts to disrupt the peaceful protest, it will have to face the consequences,” He warned not only the Sindh Secretariat will be blocked but sit-ins will also be spread across the city if the Sindh government used force against the protesters.

Significantly, Sindh is currently the only province in the country where an opposition party at the national level, Pakistan People Party (PPP), is the heading the government. In the rest of the provinces,  the PTI— the country’s main ruling party headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan - is in the governments in one way or another. 

Empowering local bodies has been one of the key poll promises of Prime Minister Khan. On Sunday, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar termed the move by the Sindh government “unconstitutional.”

Calling the setup of empowered local bodies “necessary for the continuity of the democratic dispensation” and the country’s integrity, he said, “the people will not get their due rights if the devolution of powers to the grass-root level don’t take place.” 

The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which is leading the protest in Sindh, is a conservative religious party, known for its opposition to liberal laws for women. Interestingly, the party announced on Sunday that women activists would also join the protest from Monday. 

The participation of the women and girls in the recently held successful protest in Baluchistan's Gwadar, a southwestern port city, for local rights seems to have made political parties aware of the importance of women, especially in civil rights movements in the country. Otherwise, for a hardline party like JI, it would have been impossible to include women in their political protests. 

(SAM)