Govt dodges Alvi’s refusal to greenlight LG polls bill

Treasury passes bill aims to delay Islamabad LG polls for an 'indefinite period'

ISLAMABAD:

Steering clear of President Arif Alvi’s refusal to give assent to the polls bill, the Senate on Friday passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2022, after Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani hurriedly summoned a session of the upper house of the parliament on government’s requisition after the president did not.

The Senate session, which was summoned at almost an hour’s notice, had only one objective to achieve: to pass the bill so that the local government elections could be delayed for an “indefinite period”, a senator revealed.

The move, however, drew protest from the opposition and sloganeering chiding the government for "running away from elections".

Although the agenda stated that the house would debate the situation arising out of the recent wave of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with the overall law and order situation in the country; and will take up any other important legislative business and matters, it ended up doing only the latter before the session was hurriedly prorogued.

Though the government found another way of summoning the session following the president’s refusal, it is ironic that the bill passed on Friday has to be ratified by the president, who belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) whose senators surrounded the chairman’s desk and protested against the bill throughout the session.

To the question of how will the bill help the government to delay LG polls in ICT when the president is the final authority to make it law and if he delays signing it wouldn't then the whole exercise simply go to waste, a senator from the ruling alliance admitted that it was correct as “it has to be ratified by the president to become law”.

The government’s move has come days after the federal government announced to increase in the number of union councils (UCs) from the existing 101 to 125 just 10 days prior to the LG polls. However, it was reported, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced that local government elections would be in the federal capital held as per schedule.

While deciding to hold LG polls in the capital on Dec 31, it was added, the ECP had declared the federal government’s notification to increase the number of UCs in ICT illegal, which was seen as a major blow to the federal government as it considered its move sufficient to delay LG polls in the capital.

“On a requisition, the Chairman Senate has summoned the Senate to meet at Parliament building on Friday, 23rd December 2022 at 5:30 pm under Article 54(3) of the Constitution,” read the text message shared in the official Senate group at 4:43pm. The agenda came at 5:32pm and then the session began but ended after the bill was passed with 24 votes against 12 amid the opposition’s protest.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the ICT LG act was promulgated in 2015 to establish an elected LG system to devolve political, administrative and financial authority in order to good governance and effective service delivery through institutionalised participation and involvement of people in day to day governance. It said that the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) is a Municipal body established under the ICT Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2022.

The statement further reads that the administrator, MCI has proposed amendments in sections 6, 12 and 29 of the Act ibid to increase the number of Union Councils to cater for the existing population of Islamabad and to improve the procedure of election of mayor and deputy mayor.

It added that the ministry of law and justice has vetted the draft bill from a legal point of view.

It maintained that there shall be 125 UCs within the Islamabad Capital Territory under the act, adding that the federal government on the recommendations of the Ministry of Interior by notification in the official gazette may increase or decrease the number of UCs from time to time.

The mayor and the deputy mayor shall be directly elected as joint candidates by the voters, it added. The election of the mayor and the deputy mayor shall be held on the day of the election of members of the union council under section 11.