Taxation powers to be reverted to civilians in cantonments

ISLAMABAD: A bill regarding amendments to the cantonment laws is pending in Parliament since September 2013 but could not be passed to hold much awaited local bodies elections in the 43 cantonments of the country. Though, since 2001, the local bodies elections have been held in the entire country for at least two times and provinces are heading for a third local bodies election (Balochistan already held 3rd LG polls last year), the cantonments have been deliberately kept away from the election process.
Ex-Dictator Pervez Musharraf held LG elections twice—in 2001 and 2005—in the entire country but promulgated confusing ordinances regarding cantonment laws thus deliberately depriving the residents of cantonments from electing their local representatives. Sources say that the major issue is of the taxation i.e. property tax and entertainment tax which rests with the cantonments whereas the provinces want these taxes back because these taxes were taken away from the provinces by General Ziaul Haw and protected in fifth schedule, but the 18th amendment nullified the fifth schedule and now technically the property tax imposition and entertainment tax in cantonments should go back to the provinces.
Of late, Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif after coming to power constituted a committee comprising 12 members rectify the confusions created by Musharraf in cantonments laws and to ensure that public representation in local governments in cantonment boards is both inclusive and meaningful.
The committee gave its submissions in September 2013, and a bill was laid before the National Assembly which made civilians all powerful in the cantonment boards but till date the legislation could not be passed. Therefore, a few days ago President Mamnoon Hussain had to promulgate an ordinance to empower the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct LG polls in the 43 cantonments after pressure from the Supreme Court. “At the end, it is the parliament that will have to pass a law to give authenticity to the LG polls in cantonments,” says Khawaja Zaheer, Special Assistant to Prime Minister, who was also member of the committee that submitted its recommendations in change of cantonment laws in 2013.
The tale of how Musharraf deliberately kept the cantonments away from the LG polls while he trumpeted his LG system everywhere is too long a story to be narrated here. However, the brief facts are that in October 2002 Musharraf promulgated an ordinance about LG polls in Cantonments and in December 2002, days before coming of Mir Zafarullah Jamali’s government to power, Musharraf once again promulgated an ordinance about Cantonment laws thus making a confusion which ordinance to be accepted as none repealed others. So there were three laws enacted at the same time, i.e. Cantonment Board Laws 1924 and the two ordinances of 2002. The ordinances were vague and gave all powers to the uniformed officers in control of the cantonment board. By creating such ambiguity, Musharraf kept cantonments away from the LG polls.
Though the Election Commission is going to conduct local bodies election in cantonment boards after the presidential ordinance, the decision of Parliament to legislate cantonment laws will be vital because Musharraf’s 2002 ordinance gave a station commander, usually a brigadier, all financial and executive powers of a cantonment board being its president. How much powers of a station commander would be curtailed and how much power the real public representatives elected with the votes of people would get is yet to be known.
However, according to the 2002 Ordinance, the station commander of a cantonment board is also empowered to appoint an equal number of officers as members of the board as those who were elected by the people. By this power, it was the station commander who called the shots instead of the public representatives because he always had a majority in the board as they outnumbered the elected representatives.
The station commander also had the veto power over the board as per Musharraf’s 2002 ordinance.
Khawaja Zaheer, Special Assistant to Prime Minister, while discussing the subject, said that no elections have been conducted in cantonments since 2001, when the term of already elected representatives expired. He said that a proper legislation in this regard will have to be done through the parliament; otherwise, there will be no sanctity of the LG polls in cantonments which are being conducted upon orders of the apex court because the presidential ordinance will lapse after its natural life i.e. 120 days. He said that the cantonments impose taxes i.e. property tax and entertainment tax and there can be no tax without representation. He mentioned that the committee constituted by the PM to look into Musharraf’s ambiguous ordinance had submitted its recommendations and now it is upon Parliament, i.e. the National Assembly and the Senate (where PML-N) does not enjoy majority) to pass a law.