New beginning: Years later, local bodies era returns to Punjab

Lahore Metropolitan Corporation resolves to work together with provincial govt

LAHORE: The tenure of the local government system kicked off on Monday with the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation holding its inaugural session, where the majority of elected members pledged their resolve to work shoulder to shoulder with the Punjab government.

The house also pledged its loyalty to the ruling PML-N leadership by approving a resolution with majority.

The session took place with Lahore Mayor Col (retd) Mubashir Javed in the chair at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

Deputy Mayor Ijaz Hafeez presented a resolution, stating the house has full confidence in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz.

The resolution said the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation (LMC) would fully cooperate with the provincial government to further the vision of the PML-N leaders. The resolution was passed with a majority show of hands.

The opposition members could not made their presence felt with just a few representatives shouting about having no powers.

Through the resolution, the house vowed to work with the PML-N leaders shoulder to shoulder for the development of Pakistan, saying they would leave no stone unturned to resolve the basic problems of masses.



In his speech, Mayor Mubashir said the local bodies practically started functioning today and the ruling party expected the elected representatives to come up to their expectations.

Talking about the development projects in Lahore, he said the completion of Metro Train’s Orange Line track would enlist the city among the only 20 in the world with the mass transit facility.

The mayor counted his priorities in health, cleanliness, water, drainage, education, security, town planning, building control, tree plantation, protection of cultural heritage and social welfare sectors.

Not empowered

The expected opposition leader in LMC, PTI’s UC chairman Afeef Siddiqi, while talking to reporters said that under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, the government avoided making the local bodies functional at a maximum level.

He said it was the first session of the house but no opposition member was given the chance to address the house. “No doubt the PML-N is in majority but it is a democratic tradition to give chance to the opposition to express its concerns,” he said.

He added this local bodies system was contradictory to the constitutional and democratic norms and the opposition would continue to protest against it.

Afeef said the PML-N’s elected members would toe the policies of the ruling party and spend all of their energies to appease them. “In such a situation, no good can be expected for the masses,” he added.

Funds transferred

An amount of Rs1.18 billion was also transferred to the accounts of all 182 municipal committees, 4,025 union councils, 35 district councils, 11 municipal corporations and one metropolitan corporation of Punjab.

The administrative officers of LMC also took charge on Monday. According to a notification issued by the Punjab Local Governments Department, Sardar Naseer Ahmed was appointed as the deputy chief and also given the additional charge of chief officer.  Syed Ali Abbas Bukhari was appointed as the metropolitan officer (municipal regulations), Muhammad Yousaf as the metropolitan officer (finance), Muhammad Saeed as metropolitan officer (infrastructure), Tanveer Ahmed Khan as metropolitan officer (services) and Naveed Akhtar was appointed as metropolitan officer (planning).

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2017.