4 new districts created in Sindh province

KARACHI: The Sindh government has created four new districts in the province with a view to providing administrative relief to the people.

The new districts are Kashmore, Qambar, Jamshoro, and Umerkot carved out of Jaccobabad, Larkana, Dadu and Mirpurkhas districts respectively.

The creation of the new districts was announced by the Chief Minister Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim while addressing a press conference at the chief minister house on Monday.

Kashmore district will consist of Taulkas of Kashmore and Kandhkot with district headquarters of Kandhkot, Jamshoro district will comprise Taulkas of Kotri, Sehwan, and Tando Bola khan, with district headquarters of Jamshoro, district Qambar will consist of Taulkas of Qambar, Shahdadkot, and Miro Khan with district headquarters of Qambar, and district Umerkot will comprise Taulkas of Umerkot, Samaro, Kunri and Bithoro with district headquarters of Umrekot.

It is to be recorded that Umerkot had been declared district in late 1990s, but the notification was cancelled by the provincial government due to some unspecified reasons.

The chief minister said the creation of new districts would not merely help provide administrative relief to the area people, but also open the new ways of development there.

He brushed aside the impression that the creation of new districts would affect the functioning of district governments of at least four districts saying " the district government have already completed their tenure, and the schedule for new local bodies elections will be announced soon. Even then, if there are some problems for remaining few months, it is not a big problem".

Asked whether the administrators would be appointed to run the district governments of the newly created districts or the Nazims of old districts would look after them till the new local bodies elections, Mr Rahim said " This is a new situation for us. It has happened in Balochistan where new districts have been carved out recently. We will consult the Balochistan government and see what could be done in this regard".

To a question, he said the Sindh government had not so far consulted the Balochistan government regarding changes in functioning of district governments after creation of new districts.

To another query, the chief minister said the federal government had not so far taken any decision on appointment of administrative in the district governments before the next local bodies elections. However, he said he hoped that the decision would be taken by the end of current month.

He observed that Sindh was the only province where without any cogent reason, creation of new districts had always been opposed contrary to other provinces.