KARACHI - PPP and MQM, the major political parties in the provincial metropolis, are at loggerheads when it comes to holding of the Local Bodies elections, as each among them is not willing to concede its ground on the issue. MQM wants retention of the Nazim System with few changes but the PPP wants to replace it with old Commissionrate System, which existed prior to the devolution plan introduced by former military ruler President Gen Pervez Musharraf. The two parties are sticking to their points of view so intensely that they have finally decided to postpone the local bodies elections for an indefinite period of time. A bill to this effect was unanimously passed by the Sindh Assembly on October 29, 2010, The Sindh Local Government (Fifth Amendment Act, 2010). In Clause 2 section (5) of the Bill states On dissolution of the Local Governments and Councils, after enactment of new Local Government law, the Government shall request the Chief Election Commissioner for holding the elections for the Local Government on a date as may be fixed by the Government. Prior to the passing of the said bill both the President and the Prime Minister had announced 2011 as the year of local bodies elections. President Asif Ali Zardari even had gone to the extent of advising his party to get ready for the elections and start corner meetings and people to people contact in preparation of the elections in Sindh, the bastion of power of the party. However, the elections are not insight at least this year because it could only be held if the two political stakeholders first agree to a system before the formal announcement of the election date. There is no possibility of MQM and PPP shunning their differences on the issue. MQM may agree to some cosmetic changes in the Nazim system but it would not agree to replace it with Commissionrate system. MQM Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Nation Assembly Haider Abbas Rizvi said that his party would not agree to any change in the local bodies system which had empowered the people at the grass-root level and constructively delivered in the development of areas across the country. PPP wants to restore old Commissionrate system come what way. When contacted to get viewpoints of the government, Sindh Law Minister Muhammad Ayaz Soomro said that consultations with coalition partners were going on and PPP had handed over a draft of local bodies to MQM, ANP and PML (F). He said that according to the Sindh Local Government (Fifth Amendment), local bodies polls will be held under new law. Whatever kind of system is preferred; it would be implemented through consensus among the coalition partners. We want uniform system in whole of the country but local bodies system is provincial subject. He, however, said, we detest word Nazim because the word introduced by military dictator. The word Nazim would not be in the draft of whatever system is agreed upon, he added. Sindh Minister for Local Bodies Agha Siraj Durrani said that President Asif Ali Zardari had directed the PPP to resume dialogue with MQM on the issue of local government system, adding that parley will resume soon. He said that local government system of 2001 has failed to deliver. Though it had been effective in urban areas but elsewhere it had not worked well. A system needed to be put in place, which addresses the issues in the rest of the country. PPP is caught between devil and a deep sea. If it takes solo flight and imposes its will, it will move political seismic plate and there would be more headaches for its government if MQM is not taken on board.