ECP asks K-P to submit LG law amendments by August 26

Local Bodies secretary pleaded the commission to extend the deadline

ISLAMABAD: The apex poll body on Monday directed the provincial government to submit a notification of the amendments made to its local government law by next week.

A two-member commission of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), led by Altaf Ibrahim from Punjab, heard the case of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) amending the local government law.

The commission was told that a draft of local bodies’ law was complete and that a meeting has been summoned in this regard in the coming days.

The Local Bodies secretary said that approval for the notification will be given by the cabinet.

He pleaded the commission to extend the deadline.

However, the top poll body directed the K-P government to submit a notification of the amendments to the local government law by Monday, August 26.

Ibrahim remarked that that government was delaying the matter while the ECP had to carry out the delimitation process in the province.

The K-P cabinet had in April approved an amended version of its Local Government Act 2013 to bring about a two-tier local body system while eliminating the district councils and nazims.

Under the amended law, nazims will be referred to as chairmen, while the LG system will comprise tehsil and village councils. Similarly, cities will have city and neighbourhood councils.

The election for the chairman of tehsil councils and mayor of city local government will be held on the party’s basis, while village and neighbourhood council elections will be on non-party basis.

The tehsil chairmen and mayors will be elected through direct polls.

The village and neighbourhood councils would have 33 per cent quota for women, five per cent for youth. However, the number of village and neighbourhood council members will fall to six or seven from 10-15.

A local government finance commission would be set up wherein the representation of the chairman was increased from two to four and that they would represent five zones of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2019.