Proposed draft of LG law: Opposition demands consensus for enacting new legislation

PESHAWAR: Opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly expressed apprehensions about the proposed draft of the new local government system and called for consensus before enacting the new legislation.

Initiating the debate on the issue, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said the local government system was a nursery for lawmakers, therefore, it should be flawless.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership always banked upon the LG system its government introduced four years back but contrary to their claims they have been bringing changes in the system.

Akram Durrani asked the government to take the opposition into confidence to introduce a flawless system.

He sought explanation whether the third tier i.e. the district nazim was being disbanded, LG elections would be held timely and what would be the number of members in tehsil and village and neighbourhoods councils.

Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said there were contradictions in the PTI’s policies as its government passed the Whistleblower Bill suggesting 30 percent share for those unearthing a corruption case but did not implement it and instead tried to protect the corruption of its leaders.

He said in the last LG elections village/neighbourhood polls were held on a non-party basis while the district elections were held party basis and the 30 percent development budget was also not given to grassroots level.

Sardar Babak said Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised the devolution of powers at the grassroots level.

He said it was strange that in the new system district would be absent from the hierarchy and tehsils would have the powers.

The ANP leader questioned the proposed condition of educational qualification for councillors and election on a non-party basis.

Taking part in the debate, Inayatullah Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) cautioned the government about changes to the LG system, saying it would be a violation of Article 140 A which was about devolution and decentralization of power.

He said it would be a violation of the Constitution if the third tier of the LG system was done away with and the move could be challenged in court.

Sardar Babak said being part and parcel of the last LG system, he considered it comparatively better though there were some flaws in it.

He said the government did not implement the 30 percent funding formula this year and only Rs14 billion had been released to the local governments out of the total Rs29 billion allocated in the development budget.

The ANP leader said the government should hold a debate on the proposed draft, arrange seminars and seek recommendations from the civil society.

Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Maulana Lutfur Rahman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan People’s Party’s Badshah Saleh also spoke on the issue. They said the PTI should avoid making the province a laboratory for introducing strange legislation.

They said the proposed draft should be sent to the select committee for discussion, adding LG system without the district tier would be incomplete.

Information Minister Shaukat Yusufzai termed the KP’s LG system a role model and said it should be compared with Punjab and Sindh.

He said the new draft was being prepared with broad-based deliberations to remove flaws from it.

Funds to local governments were being released properly, he added. He informed the House that the district tier had been removed from the new draft and the number of councillors in other tiers was also being reduced.

Winding up the debate, Special Assistant to Chief Minister, Kamran Bangash, clarified that the tenure of the current local governments would complete on August 28 and schedule for holding new local government elections would be announced at the end of the tenure.

However, he failed to defend the proposed changes to the system as he termed the current LG system the best one.

Earlier, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Youth Welfare Endowment Bill, 2019 and KP Youth Development Commissions Bill, 2019 were introduced in the House.