NA panel okays LG-related clause

Committee urges provincial governments to organise local body elections soon

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly’s standing committee on Law and Justice has approved a bill to amend Article 140-A of the constitution, relating to local bodies, with minor amendments. The NA panel on Law and Justice held a meeting on Thursday under the chairmanship of Riaz Fatyana.

The committee recommended the provincial governments to expedite the local body elections soon, sources said. Accordingly, elections will have to be held while the provincial governments will need to propose new local bodies regulations a year prior to holding the elections if they so desired.

Committee member Syed Javed Hussain maintained that local bodies were not restored despite the orders of the Supreme Court. The committee chairman said that former president Pervez Musharraf may be controversial in many aspects but the local government system he introduced was so strong that five members of the NA resigned from their seats to become district nazims.

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Another member Nafisa Shah said that the local government system was introduced by dictators while democratic governments did not give importance to it.

During the meeting, officials from the Election Commission of Pakistan proposed to hold polls in four months instead of two months before the end of their tenure. The law secretary maintained that local body powers are clear in Article 140-A, and that there was no need to amend the constitution.

Moreover, the standing committee further unanimously passed a bill to amend Article 185 (4) of the constitution. Accordingly, the Supreme Court will decide on the appeals of death row inmates within six months and they will be able to appeal against the High Court in the Supreme Court.