Punjab to have five lord mayors under new municipal system

Panchayats and neighbourhood councils to get more powers

RAWALPINDI: The new municipal system in Punjab will have five metropolitan corporations including Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Multan while their heads will be called Lord Mayors.

In cities the neighbourhood councils would be made in accordance with the population according to which Lahore will have 280 neighbourhood councils for 10 million population, Faisalabad will have 170 for its three million population, both Gujranwala and Rawalpindi will have 11 councils with population of two million each. Multan will have 90 councils for its 1.8 million people.

The officer of councillor has been abolished. The Union Councils (UCs) in cities and villages will be called neighbourhood and panchayat councils respectively.

A neighbourhood council constituting population between 20,000 and 45,000 would have five general councillors, two women councillors and a minority councillor.

The councils constituting of population between 13,000-20,000 would have four councillors, a woman and a minority councillor.

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The councils with population between 6,000 and 13,000 would have three general councilors, a lady and minority councilor.

The councils with population less than six thousand will have two general councillors, a lady and a minority councillor.

In villages all panchayat councils will have a woman and minority councillor however those with population between 8,000 and 15,000 will have four general councillors, those with population between 2,000 and 8,000 will have three general councillors while councils with less than 2,000 people will have two general councillor.

Further, the elections of councils will be held on a non-political basis while the candidate with the most votes will become the head of the council. Under the new system, a census will be done within six months after which new delimitations would be done by administrative officers without any role of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The small municipal councils and committees will have neighbourhood councils commensurate to their population.

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Under this scheme, the corporations with population between 0.8-0.9 million will be setup with 45 neighbourhood councils, 0.6-0.7 million with 35 councils, 0.5-0.6 million with 30 councils and 0.4-0.5 million with 25 councils.

The municipal committees will follow the same scheme. 0.3-0.4 million population will get 20 neighbourhood councils, 0.2-0.3 million will get 15 councils, 0.1-0.2 million will have 10 councils and for population of 50,000 to hundred thousand, the councils would be eight.

Further, for the population between 30,000-50,000 will have six councils and for population less than 30,000, there would be five councils.

The special seats in these councils will be according to their schedule. The council chairman would be a minority member where more population comprised of minorities.

Every voter will cast three votes with each for a general, woman and a minority councillor. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2019.