LGs to stay for 9 more months before being dissolved: PML-N’s hold over local councils in Punjab reinstated

ISLAMABAD: The firm grip of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has traditionally had over local government in Punjab stands reinstated with the restoration of the dissolved local councils that will now have a life of nine more months.

The province remained deprived of local governments for 21 months after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration disbanded them and brought in a new law under which they were dissolved. The Supreme Court declared that particular section ultra vires of the Constitution while reviving local councils. The remaining tenure of the councils will expire on December 31 this year. Phased local elections were completed in the end of 2015.

“The PML-N has almost 95pc of the mayors, district council chairmen and councillors throughout Punjab,” restored Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Nasim told The News. He stated that their lawyers say that it would become clear from the detailed judgment what is to be done about the 21 months during which local governments remained dissolved after Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2019 (PLGA) was declared null and void. He said that they planned to approach the apex court again so that the local governments become operational for these 21 months.

Local governments usually have a five-year tenure. The first year was wasted in litigation. The mayors, chairmen and councillors could not take oath because of this otherwise their term would have expired on December 31, 2020.

The restoration of the local councils is a major blow to the PTI’s plans to purge these organisations of the PML-N cardholders. It had framed a new law in 2019, which was mired in controversy because its ally the PML-Q had always been strongly opposed to the law and wanted massive amendments to it. This was one of the reasons for the differences between the two coalition partners.

Section 3 says all local governments constituted or continued under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013 are dissolved. As soon as may be, but not later than 21 months of the commencement of the PLGA, the government will constitute succeeding local governments in accordance with the new law. This was never done for one reason or the other.

Interestingly, the apex court decision came when Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan and Additional Attorney General Sohail Mehmood opposed the dissolution of elected governments through a statutory dispensation and equated Section 3 with the erstwhile Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution under which the elected governments were sent packing by the presidents. The attorney general is a principled man and doesn’t hesitate in taking a fair and just stand before the superior courts -- even if it is in conflict with the position of the government.

The apex court remarked that first the local bodies in Punjab were dissolved for six months. Later, the elections were announced but after that the dissolution period was extended to 21 months. Now, the polls are being linked to the pending decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), it observed.

Meanwhile, the PML-N is thrilled over the development. In a tweet, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the restoration of the local bodies system in Punjab is a victory for the “respect the vote” narrative. Every institution created by the people’s votes is sacred and making it dysfunctional amounts to treason, he said, and showered accolades on all the office-bearers of the local bodies for being steadfast in the legal battle.

However, what will haunt the restored mayors, chairmen and councilors will be the policy and attitude of the Punjab government towards them. The PTI disbanded the local councils immediately after coming to power as it could not tolerate them. How it will live with them in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment is an open question.

The PML-N has traditionally controlled the local governments since they were introduced in the early eighties. Its rivals have always been sceptical about its domination of the local system. When the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had come to power for the first time, it too had dissolved the local bodies and appointed its party supporters as their administrators.

Functioning local governments and office-bearers play a significant role for political parties in any election. Local office-bearers have small constituencies where they have close contacts with the voters and are in a position to influence them.