If the Punjab Assembly passes the new local government bill, the upcoming local bodies (LB) elections will be held in the province on a non-party basis. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the Punjab Local Government (PLG) Bill 2013 on Saturday.
The premier was briefed about the bill by Punjab Law and Local Government Minister Rana Sanaullah at a high-level meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. According to party officials, the prime minister’s recommendations were incorporated into the bill.
The bill will be tabled in the Punjab Assembly on Monday (August 19) where it’s expected to be passed on Thursday (August 22)
Sanaullah told The Express Tribune that the premier studied the bill along with the recommendations of a special committee of the Punjab Assembly, civil society and media persons.
Major features of the PLG 2013 bill
Sharing details of the bill, Sanaullah said under the proposed legislation cities with a population larger than 500,000 people will be governed by municipal corporations, which will be further divided into city councils. The chairmen of these councils will elect the mayor and his deputy for their respective cities. Lahore, meanwhile, will have a metropolitan corporation which will work the same way as the municipal corporations.
Towns with a population ranging between 30,000 and 500,000 people will be governed by a municipal committee. These committees will be subdivided into wards, each of which will elect a representative. The representatives of each of the wards in a town
will elect the chairman and vice chairman of their respective municipal committee.
Rural areas, with a population less than 30,000, will have village councils which will directly elect their chairmen. The chairmen of all the village councils in a certain district will then form district councils, whose authority will be limited to rural areas.
Both urban and village councils will have six directly-elected members and five reserved seats – two for women and one each for ‘peasants’, non-Muslims and the youth – in addition to a chairman and vice chairman. If a council chairman is later elected as a mayor or deputy mayor, the vice chairman will take over in his stead and the empty seat in the council will be filled by the candidate who finished seventh in the election for general seats.
Under the bill, LB elections will be held on a non-party basis. According to Sanaullah, the decision was taken after he informed Premier Nawaz that during general discussion over the bill in the Punjab Assembly, 67% of the house supported holding LB elections on a non-party basis. He added that senior PML-N leaders and bureaucrats present in the meeting also suggested holding the LB polls on a non-party basis.
Sanaullah said the premier also approved the inclusion of reserved seats for technocrats in the metropolitan and municipal corporations, district councils and municipal committees. He said, following discussion, it was decided that journalists, lawyers, educationists, health experts and retired bureaucrats will come under the technocrat category.
In Lahore’s metropolitan corporation, the PLG 2013 bill envisages 50 reserved seats, of which 25 will be for women, 10 each for labourers and non-Muslims, and five for technocrats. In all other corporations and councils, reserved seats for technocrats and others will be fixed in view of the population of the respective areas.
Sanaullah said the meeting participants have also suggested raising the minimum age of participation in local government elections from 21 years – currently stipulated in the PLG 2013 bill – to 25 years.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2013.