Councillors face power erosion

Proposed law envisages more authority for DCs

LAHORE/RAWALPINDI:

The proposed Punjab Local Government Act 2025 will empower the bureaucracy over public representatives by reducing their authority.

According to sources, the draft proposes abolition of the metropolitan corporations and district councils, replacing them with town corporations, Tehsil councils and municipal committees across the province.

In addition, the post of mayor in large cities such as Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi will be abolished.

Instead, the deputy commissioners will be given more authority at the district level.

Under the proposed law, 10 departments, including primary health, education, public health engineering, social welfare and tourism, will be integrated at the district level.

A Local Government Commission will be authorised to take action against elected representatives. Town corporations will be established in each city, with Lahore having 10. Each town corporation will have a mayor, two deputy mayors, and chairmen and members of all union councils within its limits.

The Pakistan Peoples Party has refused to support the law, which is currently with a standing committee and will be presented to the assembly for approval. The act proposes a uniform union council system in urban and rural areas.

Each union council will consist of 13 members, including nine general councilors, a farmer, a youth, a woman and a meet from a minority community. The chairman will be elected from among the councilors.

Municipal committees will be established in urban areas with a population of less than 200,000 and more than 25,000. Each committee will have a chairperson and vice chairperson. The chairperson of each UC within the committee's limits will be a member, along with members elected on reserved seats.

Tehsil councils will be established in rural areas. Each council will have a chairperson and two vice chairpersons. The chairpersom of each UC within the council's limits will be a member, along with five to 13 members elected on reserved seats.

Municipal corporations will be established in urban areas with a population over 200,000. Each corporation will have a mayor and two deputy mayors.

The chairperson of each UC within the corporation's limits will be a member. Reserved seats will include 14 per cent for women, three per cent for non-Muslims, five per cent for labourers, two per cent for technocrats.and one per cent each for youth and disabled persons.

A major change proposed in the law is the establishment of district authorities headed by DCs. The authorities will include officers from the departments of primary health, education, social welfare, population control, sports, local transport, civil defence, public health engineering, arts and culture, and tourism.

The chairpersons of each UC, municipal corporation and municipal committee in the district would also be members of the authority.

An analyst said the system would allow the chief minister to control all matters through the DCs.

However, Article 140-A of the Constitution states that local governments should have financial, administrative and political authority through elected representatives.

As per the proposed law, the local governments will work under a provincial framework, and the delimitations will also be done through DCs.

The CM will have the authority to appoint administrators.

Independent candidates who win elections will be required to join a party within three months. Pakistan Peoples Party Central Punjab General Secretary Hasan Murtaza also said the Punjab government's Local Government Act 2025 is unconstitutional and undemocratic, and can be termed tantamount to a "civil martial law".

He criticised the alleged move to impose the bureaucracy over elected representatives.