Provincial Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafiq has said that the legislative process is underway to conduct local bodies elections in Punjab. There is ambiguity in the law made by the former government.
He was addressing a round table conference on the topic of local democratic governments. Civil society representatives, senior journalists and others also participated in the conference. The participants emphasized the need for early holding of local body elections in Punjab.
Minister Zeeshan Rafiq said that the Local Government Act 2019 called for the abolition of the Union Council, the basic unit of local bodies. He regretted that elected local bodies were not allowed to flourish in the past decades, but Muslim League-N has a track record of conducting local bodies elections during its tenure.
Zeeshan Rafiq reminded that Muhammad Nawaz Sharif strengthened the local bodies during his prime ministership, but the government that came after him sent the local bodies of the Muslim League-N government home. He said that under the supervision of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the preparation for holding local body elections in Punjab is proceeding ahead. “Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has set up a high-level committee within a month of assuming power, which has studied various systems and sent the recommendations of the new bill to the cabinet.”, he said.
The Minister expressed the hope that the provincial cabinet will soon approve the draft law after which the matter will go to the Punjab Assembly. He termed the Local Government Act of the previous government as unworkable, adding that the division between cities and villages was abolished in this law, which created complexity in the system. “It is clear that cities have their own problems and rural populations have their own issues’, he added.
The Provincial Minister further told that Town Committee and Tehsil Council are being added in the new local bodies system. “We completed all this within a few months. In this regard, financial aspects are also taken into consideration”, he said. The Minister agreed that the task of repairing and rehabilitation of the streets should be the responsibility of the local representatives. “We want the new system to have no loopholes so that it will continue in the future too”, said Minister Rafiq.
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