KP LG representatives warn of protest against rules of business

PESHAWAR: The Local Council Association (LCA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has rejected the local government rules of business and warned of launching a province-wide movement if the government failed to accept their demands by December 20.
Speaking at a news conference here on Monday, LCA general secretary Israrullah advocate alleged that the representatives of the local government had been deprived of their democratic rights by framing rules of business against article 148 of the Constitution.
Flanked by several other colleagues, he claimed that the LG’s RoB were against article 1480 of the Constitution and Local Government Act.
Israrullah advocate, who hails from Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), said that they would hold protest movements at district, tehsil and union council levels and mobilise 45,000 councillors throughout the province to force the government to withdraw what they termed unconstitutional rules.
He said the PTI leadership was making tall claims and terming the local government system a model for other provinces, but it had deprived nazims and councillors of their rights and all powers were delegated to deputy commissioners at district and assistant commissioners at tehsil level.
“By empowering DCs and ACs, the PTI government once again introduced British system and made the people’s representative mere rubber stamp, which is not acceptable to us,” he added.
He said it was astonishing that the district nazim was not even a member of the District Development Committee, which would hold its meeting under the presidentship of DC. Israrullah said that according to 140-A, all political, administrative and financial powers of the local government can only be exercised by the elected representatives. He urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to maintain LG system of 2001, which had empowered nazims to solve people’s problems at the grassroots.
He said all councillors including women and minorities would join them in the protests, for which all arrangements have been finalised.