News Desk |
Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar signed on Saturday the Local Government Bill 2019 and turned it into a law. The governor said that people were being empowered in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “We are fulfilling our promise to transfer powers to the lower-tiers of administration,” he said.
On April 30, the Punjab Assembly adopted the Local Government Bill 2019 and the Punjab Villages Panchayats and Neighborhood Councils Bill, 2019 through majority vote with the opposition boycotting the session.
The opposition protested and walked out of the House over the approval of the bill as their amendments were not taken into consideration. The Punjab government plans to hold elections for the new local bodies within one year.
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Features of Proposed Local Government Law
On April 11, the media reported, Law and Local Government Minister Basharat Raja had explained the new local government law to media persons at a press conference at 90-Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam.
During the press conference, the minister had said Punjab’s new local government law would introduce two-tier administrative infrastructure – Panchayat at rural level and Neighborhoods Council at the lowest level of local government in urban areas.
In the new local government law, the report said, the district councils would be abolished in the rural local governments and be replaced by a Tehsil Council at each tehsil level raising the number from 35 districts to 138 tehsils across the province.
In place of existing union councils, Raja said, the new law will introduce Panchayat for each Mauza – so there will be 22,000 Panchayat instead of 3,281 union councils.
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In the urban local government system, the report said, there would be Metropolitan Corporation for four cities – Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi; municipal corporations for eight cities – DG Khan, Multan, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Murree, Bahawalpur and Gujrat.
Raja said the urban union councils and wards would be abolished and some 2,400 Neighborhood Councils would be established at grassroots level. There would be municipal committees in 182 cities and town committees in 40 small towns.
Explaining about the local government elections structure, the report read, Raja said there would be party-based elections for urban and tehsil councils, while mayor and chairpersons would be elected through direct election. The members will be elected on a panel proposed by party on a proportional basis.
During the press conference, the minister also explained functions of urban local governments, tehsils councils, Panchayats and Neighborhood Councils.
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Elections and Funds
The Panchayat and Neighborhood Councils elections would be held on a non-party basis and the candidate securing highest votes would become chairperson.
Briefing on the local government finances, Raja said the funds would be directly transferred to urban local governments, tehsils councils, Panchayat and Neighborhood Councils – ensuring more transparency and efficiency.
As per KP precedent, he said, one-third of the ADP funds would be transferred to local governments for devolved functions. In addition to this, the law minister said, “Rs40 billion would be transferred to Panchayats and neighborhood councils for local development”.
Three PML-N MPAs Suspended over Ruckus on Local Government Bill
Meanwhile, On April 26, Punjab Assembly’s deputy speaker had suspended membership of three Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders after a ruckus was triggered during an assembly session.
Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, the deputy speaker in Punjab Assembly, suspended three members of PML-N – Uzma Bukhari, Pir Ashraf Rasool and Mian Abdul Rauf – as the opposition had intensified protest on a report on the local government bill.
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The opposition members had shouted anti-government slogans, exchanged harsh words with the deputy speaker and staged a walkout after raising objections over various points of the report. On April 25, assembly’s Standing Committee on Local Government had approved the bill.
It was reported that MPA Rasool was suspended during the presentation of the bill, whereas the membership of the other two leaders was suspended after the deputy speaker replayed a video of the protest.
Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja, while defending the bill lamented that consensus between PML-N and the government was difficult as the opposition party wanted to have its way. He said that the government tried to bring the opposition on board but in vain