Karachi: The provincial Sindh assembly on Monday approved amendments to Local Government (LG) Act 2014 and accorded the government powers to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to make constituencies in the province before holding the municipal elections.

The amendments were made mostly by the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) legislators as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had boycotted the session over its grievances with the PPP after the weekend speech of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The amendments to the LG laws were made after a bill was tabled in the assembly in the light of the Supreme Court orders in March this year in which the apex court instructed all the provincial governments to assign the delimitation powers to the ECP so that objections of the political parties could be addressed.

Besides PPP, Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PML Functional also supported the amendments to incorporate them into the Act.

Earlier, MQM, which had declared its detachment with the PPP government, boycotted the assembly session.

The MQM on Sunday announced its detachment with the government after Bilawal speech on Saturday in which, among other issues, he told his supporters to take over Karachi from MQM by eliminating its mandate in the next elections.

Yesterday the party filed a request to the assembly for allotting opposition benches to it, whereas its ministers and advisors submitted their resignations in their offices.

Before leaving the house, Khawja Izharul Hasan, the MQM leader, said in his address that the government was not taking notice of the killings in Karachi. He said that they were not willing to share the responsibility of the government corruption.

He further said that the government was suppressing the voice of destitute. The MQM was observing restraint over abuse of the word ‘Mohajir’ by the PPP leaders, and Altaf Hussain instructed the party workers to control their sentiments.

Haq was reacting on PPP leader’s remarks on Mohajir (immigrants), who makes the major following of MQM.

Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah in his speech in the assembly said that the ongoing operation was being executed without any discrimination. He further said that he himself was implicated in 29 murder cases and was kept in jail for two years over the fake cases.

Shah said that PPP’s 250 workers and supporters were also killed in the targeted killings in the city.