Punjab Governor Muhammad Balighur Rehman suspended the Local Government Act 2022 that was approved by the former chief minister Pervaiz Elahi.
After the approval of the governor, Local Government and Community Development Secretary Ahmed Raza Sarwar issued a regular gazette notification on Wednesday evening, which will come into effect immediately.
The move has abolished eleven metropolitan corporations and 40 district councils across Punjab, while 185 municipal committees and 35 district councils were restored in their place. A total of 252 local bodies from 2013 were restored.
According to this notification, the only Metropolitan Corporation in Punjab will be that of Lahore, thus there will no longer be a District Council in the provincial capital. The Metropolitan Corporation status of Gujarat, Sialkot was also abolished, while Municipal Corporations and District Councils were also abolished in the four new districts of Murree, Talagang, Kot Addu and Taunsa.
In November, 2022 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.
Carrying out the delimitation three times because of frequent legislation has cost the exchequer a large amount of money.
After deliberations between the provincial election commissioner and the Punjab government, it was decided that new constituencies should be demarcated as per the Local Government Act of 2022.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2023.
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