PML-N asked to deliver on LG promises

ISLAMABAD:

The MQM-P wants the PML-N to honour its promise of implementing the local government system across the country by supporting its constitutional amendment bill proposing key changes in Article 140-A of the Constitution, it emerged on Sunday.

The MQM-P, a key ally in the PML-N government, recently introduced the 27th constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly. The party is hopeful that the PML-N-led ruling alliance will reciprocate the favour it received for the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment just days earlier.

Before the passage of the 26th amendment, PML-N's Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Reform Ahsan Iqbal visited MQM-P, assuring the party that PML-N would address the proposed local government amendment bill following the approval of the constitutional package by parliament.

Talking to The Express Tribune, MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar said that the special committee of parliament formed to discuss the drafts of the 26th amendment remains intact.

He hoped that, as promised by the PML-N, the committee would review MQM-P and other parties' proposals for the 27th amendment in the coming days.

Dr Sattar shared that the government had assured MQM-P that work would start on the 27th amendment soon after the passing of the constitutional package, which changed the criteria for the selection of the chief justice of Pakistan and established constitutional benches in the higher judiciary.

With the 26th Amendment now part of the Constitution, MQM-P's Jawed Hanif Khan recently introduced a bill in the assembly proposing a substitution of Article 140A (local governments).

The lawmaker said that local governments in Pakistan have a chequered history, marked by periods of varied fortune, having a consistent pattern of dubious existence under dictatorial regimes and of outright non-existence under democratic dispensations.

"Dictators used them to acquire legitimacy while democracies considered them as rivals," he stated.

"The federal government shall, by law, establish a local government system throughout the country, whereby political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority shall be devolved to the elected representatives of the local governments," the proposed amendment states.

The bill proposes that there shall be Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta metropolitan cities, saying a metropolitan city shall be constituted for every other city having more than five million population.

In addition, it states, that a municipal city government for every city having a population from one million to five million; municipal government for cities with a population from five lacs to one million; town government for one to five lacs population; district government for all rural districts; town committees for 50,000 population to 100,000; union committee in urban areas & union council in rural areas; ward in every union council & committee; and village committee (Panchayat) in every village.

It states that the Election Commission of Pakistan shall hold elections of local governments; local government shall continue for five years; mayor or chairman shall be elected directly; polls should be held a month before the expiry of the term; and within two months if prematurely dissolved.

The bill proposes that the federal and provincial governments may, as deemed fit, devolve to local governments at appropriate levels, powers and authority to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, cess, rates and fees. The party has proposed that local government finance should come via the NFC formula, saying the share of each local government shall directly be transferred by the federal.

The bill also carries a sixth schedule, which defines the list of subjects – a total of 42 – of the local governments. The subjects include planning for the overall socio-economic development of the community; master plan; urban design and physical planning; housing and town planning; land control; land development, disposal, management and regulation; land use regulation, zoning and classification.

It also includes regulation, management and control of building construction; improvement and upgradation of Katchi Abadies; development of infrastructure including roads, bridges and underpasses; public transport; mass transit; traffic regulation and management; local policing including traffic police; magistracy; school and college education; technical education and vocational training.

It adds health; hospitals and allied medical facilities; medical education; population welfare; social security and public welfare; administration and management of Zakat; food control; promotion of information technology; provision of entertainment, promotion of sports and culture; museums, art galleries, libraries, community and cultural centres; conservation of historical and cultural heritage.

It further adds cooperatives; water supply and sewerage disposal; public health, sanitation, conservancy and solid waste management; flood control, development and maintenance of stormwater disposal system; disaster management; fire services and civil defence; provision and maintenance of amenities such as parks, playgrounds, street lights, parking lots, bus stops and other public conveniences.

Moreover, it includes protection of the environment; forestry; establishment, management and maintenance of industrial estates; small and medium enterprises; cottage industries; management and regulation of trade and businesses; management of cattle colonies; cattle ponds; prevention of cruelty to animals; livestock; animal husbandry, fisheries, dairy and poultry farming; and regulation of slaughterhouses.

Furthermore, it includes registration of marriages, birth and death; burial and burial grounds; cremation grounds; management of markets and commercial centres; agriculture including agriculture extension; rural development; on-farm water management; recruitment, management and administration of human resource employed for smooth functioning of the local governments.