Local govts in Punjab to wait a few weeks more

Deferral comes as govt scrambles to find a way to implement the top court’s order

LAHORE:

Smooth transition of power for the freshly restored local bodies may take four to eight weeks after approval of (transition) committees by Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, an officer familiar with the development revealed on Thursday.

The deferral comes as the government scrambles for a plan to find a way to implement the March 25 Supreme Court order in what appears to be an attempt to avert an impending contempt of court.

Representatives of local government on the other hand claimed that the entire exercise to form committees after four months of the apex court's orders was yet another excuse to buy time, saying they would move the High Court to slap the government with contempt of court.

Read more: Local governments are part of state, third tier of govt: SC

The Lahore High Court had earlier on Monday issued a notice to the Punjab government on a set of petitions seeking implementation of the Supreme Court’s judgement about the restoration of local governments in the province. Justice Ayesha Malik had directed the provincial law officer to submit a reply on behalf of the government by July 16.

The local government and community development department had moved a summary to Punjab's chief minister seeking approval to form committees at the district and tehsil level to plan out a smooth transition of power for the restored local government.

According to an official, who requested not to be named, the initial summary was to seek approval for divisional and district level, however late they were modified. He said that the mandate of these committees would be to ensure a smooth transition of power which means the transition of liabilities, distribution of assets, the opening of new accounts, closure of old accounts, human resource management, and development resources.

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He said that the district committee would have DCs as its convenor whereas the tehsil committee would be convened by ACs. He said that they would work on the abovementioned TORs.

He said that the government was in the meantime waiting for its review petition on the March 25 judgement to be heard, adding that they will have to seek clarity from the court as to how to restore local governments elected under PLGA 2013 when the very act stood repealed under PLGA 2019.

He said that currently, PLGA 2019 stands in the field and only representatives elected under this act can draw powers from it. This 2019 act repealed the previous 2013 act. He said that they have approached the court to seek clarity on this point.   

It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court on March 25 had restored Punjab’s local governments, which were dissolved by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led provincial government in May 2019, years ahead of their prescribed term – January 1, 2022.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on information Dr Firdos Ashiq Awan said that under court orders the local governments have already been restored. She said these committees were to only ensure a smooth transition of power. She said that the government was serious about implementing the court order. She however said that there were legal issues that need to be addressed for which the government has filed a review petition.

On the other hand, Ahmad Iqbal, Chairman District Narowal said that they reject the government's plan of forming committees. He said that if the government was serious, it would have formed committees a day after SC had ordered to restore them. He said this entire exercise is to save their skin from a possible contempt of court.

"We would not become part of any time-wasting exercise." He said that even if they get restored a day before the expiry of their term, they will sit in their office. He said that our restoration would secure the future of the third tier of government for times to come.