PAKISTAN

 KARACHI: The core committee of the ruling coalition of Sindh, PPP and MQM on Saturday met at Sindh Governor House and discussed issues to adopt the new local government (LG) system in the province.

Governor of Sindh Dr.Ishrat ul Ibad, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister A Rehman Malik also attended the meeting.

Senior Sindh Minister for Education, Pir Mazhar ul Haq, Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani and Irrigation Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah represented PPP in the meeting, while Dr Farooq Sattar, Raza Haroon, Babar Ghori Adil Siddiqui, Wasim Aftab and Dr Saghir Ahmed argued from MQM side.

Core committee apprised the leadership of the working relationship between the coalition partners and ongoing talks on local government system.

According to sources, PPP wanted to restore the new local government matching to the 1979 LG system, while MQM was interested in retaining 2001 local bodies system with some changes.

The meeting remained inconclusive as both the sides could not reach on any consensus to adopt joint draft of new LG system, sources said.