Pakistan: 90-year-old City Council Hall in Karachi renovated two weeks before municipal polls
Local elections are slated to be held on October 23 after request for a delay rejected
Karachi: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has completed the renovation and upgradation of the 90-year-old City Council Hall two weeks before local government elections are scheduled to be held in the provincial capital.
The hall is housed in the Old KMC building on MA Jinnah Road which is one of the architectural monuments belonging to the colonial era and is also known for its clock tower.
The local elections are to be held on October 23, after the Election Commission of Pakistan turned down the latest request of the government to once again put off the polls as the police are busy in flood-affected areas and that security for peaceful polling cannot be be ensured.
After the polls, the City Council will comprise 367 members of whom 246 will be directly elected and while the rest will become council members on reserved seats. The Council members in the next stage will elect a new mayor of Karachi.
Karachi’s Administrator, Murtaza Wahab, along with Sindh Local Government Minister, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, jointly inaugurated the renovated City Council Hall.
Initially the City Council comprised 57 members when Karachi was given the status of a municipal corporation in 1933, Wahab said.
During the next stage the members increased to 166 when a new local government system had been introduced in 1979.
Later, the council’s strength increased to 232 in 1983 and to 255 when a revised local government system was introduced in 2001.
Wahab said the City is now fully air-conditioned as it also comprised three big chandeliers and a large portrait of Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.