Government of Karachi

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

Under the LGO of 2001, the Mayor of Karachi had control over city planning, the Karachi Water & Sewage Board (KW & SB), the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), the KDA, the Karachi Revenue Department and the Karachi Land Registry. The funds for those organizations were also directly accessible to the mayor. The powers of the Mayor didn't include supervision over law Enforcement and the Mayor still had to get fundings from the President of Pakistan.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Building (KMC) completed in 1932 houses the city counsel hall for seating of general counsel meeting for 304 elected counselors and the offices of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor

The current Karachi Local Government System follows the Sindh Local Government Act of 2013 (SLGA 2013).

The Karachi Local Government system consists of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation which is subdivided into of 6 District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) each headed by a Chairman and Deputy Chairman. The districts or Zila of the Karachi Local Government are, as of Sindh Local Government Act of 2013 are District Central, District West, District East, District South, Malir and Korangi. Each district is further divided into Union Committees (UCs) which are headed by a Chairman and Vice Chairman. Each Union Committee is further subdivided into four Wards. Citizens directly elect their UC Board and the 4 Ward members of each UC. Some seats in the Union Committees are reserved for women, non-Muslim minorities, and young citizens. All the members of the Union Committee directly elected a Chairman and Vice Chairman.

The Chairmen of all the Union Committees form the City Council (and oversee the KMC) and elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, while the Vice Chairmen of all the Union Committee elect the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the District Municipal Corporation (DMC) and works in District Municipal Corporation Office.

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

According to the new local government system (SLGA 2013), the KDA was removed from KMC and is now controlled by the provincial government. Since then, the office of the mayor is located in the KMC building.

According to the SLGA 2013, the powers of the mayor have been greatly reduced. The KDA, KW&SB, KBCA (renamed to SBCA), the Karachi Revenue Department, the Karachi Land Registry, KMTA, the Karachi Department of Transportation (now SMTA), and the KSWMA (now SSWMA) were removed from KMC and merged into the KDA. The KDA itself was divided into the Malir and Lyari Development Authority. The Mayor now has to ask the Sindh Government for the funds, and has to form a joint account with the Commissioner of Karachi, whose approval is required for any funds to be used.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The Commissioner of Karachi has a substantial role in the current Government of Karachi as opposed to the former City District Government of Karachi (CDGK), where the role of commissioner was made honorary.

Independent observer organisations like PILDAT and FAFEN argue that not granting adequate powers to the mayor is in direct violation of Article 140(A) of the Pakistani Constitution.

After six years, the Karachi City Council held its first meeting on 3 October 2016.[10] The meeting was presided by the Deputy Mayor of Karachi, Arshad Vohra, as the incarcerated Mayor of Karachi, Waseem Akhtar, was forbidden to appear for the meeting despite the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) issued a NOC (No Objection Certificate). 308 members of the Karachi City Council participated in the meeting. During the first meeting, the Council urged relevant authorities to allow the Mayor to preside over the next meetings .[11]

Due to increased number of members and unavailability of space, the City Council passed a resolution for new City Council Building to be built in order to accommodate the required members on 3 October 2016.

The City of Karachi Municipal Act was promulgated in 1933. Initially the Municipal Corporation consisted of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and 57 Councillors.

In the Sindh People's Ordinance of 1972 (amended in 1976), the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was officially established.[12][13] In 1976, the Karachi Municipal Corporation was upgraded to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. The administrative area of Karachi was a second-level subdivision known as the Karachi Division, which was subdivided into five districts: Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West, and Malir.

Unlike its latest and amended version in the form of 'Sindh Local Government Act 2013', the 1972 Ordinance empowered the Mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, allowing the Mayor to have oversight in many areas such as city planning, development, etc.

In 1992, after the mayoral tenure of Farooq Sattar, the elected mayor system was abolished and the appointed Administrator System was implemented from 1992 to 2001.

This act was passed by the military dictator General Zia ul Haq who restricted the role of the Mayor.[14]

City District Government Karachi logo

In January 2000, under Pervez Musharraf, the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO 2001)[15] was passed.

The Ordinance designed a new devolution of financial resources and responsibilities back to the City of Karachi. 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 (CDG) overseeing the administration of the area.

The City District of Karachi was divided into 18 Towns, each 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).

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 working with the CDG to plan and execute municipal services, as well as for informing higher authorities about public concerns and complaints.[16]

The Sindh People's Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO 2012), passed by Sindh Assembly, proposed the creation of five districts with the City of Karachi: Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, and Mirpurkhas.[17] The Ordinance was promising and empowered to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, but it was discarded by the Assembly on 21 February 2013.[18][19][20]

The Sindh Local Government Act of 2013 (SLGA 2013)[21] further carved the city into 6 districts, with two new districts (Korangi and Malir) being formed. The Sindh Local Government Act also proposed the formation of a 7th district called the 'District Council' which comprises the rural areas within Karachi that didn't come under the purview of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. The important departments within the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) such as KW&SB (Water Board), KDA, KBCA (Karachi Building Control Authority, Solid Waste Management, etc. were removed from KMC and merged with the Sindh Provincial Government.[22] Under the new Act, the powers of the Mayor were greatly reduced.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered the provinces to restore the Local Government system. In response, the Sindh Provincial Government finally agreed to conduct Local Government elections on December 15, 2015.