Delimitation of UCs begins

Repeated changes in Punjab’s grassroots system waste earlier efforts

LAHORE:

On the instructions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the Punjab local government secretary has sent a letter to the deputy commissioners of all districts for fresh delimitation of constituencies for local government elections.

Carrying out the delimitation three times because of frequent legislation has cost the national exchequer a large amount of money.

After deliberations between the provincial election commissioner and the Punjab government regarding the local bodies elections, it was decided that new constituencies should be demarcated as per the Local Government Act of 2022.

In light of the decision, the local government secretary has issued orders to the 38 DCs to immediately start delimitation of union councils with a population of about 25,000 each.

The initial work has been started in Lahore as well as other districts.

The Election Commission, Board of Revenue, education department and other institutions have also been taken on board regarding the process. All the relevant departments have been directed to start work to implement the Local Government Act as soon as possible after reviewing the maps of the old constituencies.

Provincial Local Government Minister Mian Mehmoodur Rashid told The Express Tribune that the current government in the province represented the country's most popular party, which wanted to hold the local elections immediately. The Election Commission has issued instructions for the delimitation. He said the Election Commission would release the election schedule in consultation with the Punjab government.

He said the Election Commission should make all arrangements for the polls after delimitation so that the PTI and other parties could contest them.

The provincial local government law has been changed three times during the past few years.

Under the Local Government Act 2022 approved by Punjab Assembly after the present government came to power, union councils will be called neighbourhood councils. There will be more than 14,000 councils in the province, including over 400 in the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation.

The mayors of the metropolis, districts and Tehsils will be elected directly. There will be two deputy mayors in Lahore, one of a district and one of every Tehsil.

Earlier, the previous PTI-led government had decided that the area in each UC should have a population of 20,000, while the succeeding PML-N government had opted for the figure of 30,000.

The government enacted the current local government law after objections were raised by the Punjab governor over the issue. As per the law, the Election Commission has to conduct local elections within 120 days after the Local Government Act was approved.

In a meeting of the Election commission last week, it was decided that the Punjab local bodies minister and secretary along with the chief secretary should be contacted over the issue of repeated delay in the polls in the province.

An official said while briefing the participants that the Punjab government had worked on legislation in this regard and the provincial government had approved the bill on November 1.

The commission had ordered the Punjab government on October 25 to introduce the election rules within 15 days.

The participants of the meeting were informed that the draft rules had been received from the provincial government but other documents, data and maps had not yet been shared.

The Election Commission’s secretary said the delimitation for the polls in the province had been done twice from the national exchequer. The local government elections in the province had been delayed so far because of repeated amendments to the local government law by the provincial government.

Now, the delimitation will have to be carried out for the third time.

The chief election commissioner said the commission was bound to hold local government polls within 120 days.

The provincial election commissioner would inform the commission about the appointment of the delimitation committees and authorities, following which it would issue the notification.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2022.