Punjab govt ready to fully restore LGs

LAHORE:

To finally restore the local governments of Punjab, the Local Government and Community Development (LGCD) Department will move the transition plan to the provincial cabinet for its approval in the coming days, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A well-placed official in LGCD Department revealed that except DG Khan, they had received transition plans from all the provincial divisions. He said DG Khan Division too had promised to send in their transition plan by Monday.

The official noted that a new commissioner had taken charge in DG Khan recently and it took time to come to grips with the affairs of the office.

“Once all the transition plans are received they would be moved to the provincial cabinet for approval.

Once approved by the provincial cabinet, the local government will be restored all at once.”

The official observed that the local government would be restored according to the PLGA 2019 and that the same would be submitted before the Lahore High Court (LHC) during the oncoming hearing.

“Restoring the local government will not take long now.”

Read Local govts’ uplift work in limbo

It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court had restored Punjab’s local governments on May 25, 2021 which were dissolved by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led provincial government on May 4, 2019, years ahead of their prescribed term – January 1, 2022.

The decision however was not implemented owing to legal and financial constraints. The main hurdle was the absence of the act under which the restored local bodies were elected.

A new act called Punjab Local Government Act 2019 is in the field that had effectively repealed the old act named Punjab Local Government Act 2013.

To get the order implemented, representatives of the local government moved the LHC. Justice Ayesha Malik on petitions filed by Lahore Mayor Col (retd) Mubashir Javed and others had directed the provincial law officer to submit a reply on behalf of the government by July 16.

Fearing a contempt of Supreme Court orders, the LGCD Department had before the hearing moved a summary to the Punjab chief minister seeking approval to form committees primarily at divisional and district level to plan out a smooth transition of power for the freshly restored local government.

The mandate of these committees was to chalk out a plan for smooth transition of power which meant transition of liabilities, distribution of assets, opening of new accounts, closure of old accounts, human resource management, and development resources.

The summary was approved and on July 17, four teams were notified.

The formation of transition teams by many was seen as a delaying tactics.

Narowal District Chairman Ahmed Iqbal said that giving local governments back to them in the last quarter of their last year would serve no purpose as they would not be able to serve the people of their area.

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He said they would be given their offices back, at best even their vehicles that were under the DC and commissioners use but they would have no other authority. He said the provincial government would not let them have complete autonomy.

Iqbal said they were restored on May 25 when they had seven more months to spare but now with only three months left they would not be able to do anything.

The remaining months of our tenure will pass bickering and fighting over assets and liabilities with the DC and commissioners, he said, adding that “they had been denied justice”.

Another officer of LGCD Department revealed that the local governments, when restored, would be completely toothless. Given the principle of proportional spending, they will have a three months budget at their disposal but will not be able to materialise any of their development schemes, he pointed out.

The official said under the new Act of 2019 there was a Local Planning Board in place from where they would have to get their schemes approved.

He said they will not be able to get any scheme passed in time to even see it going towards even the execution phase.