ANP calls for empowered local governments

Mian Iftikhar urges provincial government to announce transparent local body polls

PESHAWAR:

A delegation of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and another from the Pakistan Peoples Party on Saturday called on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Awami National Party President Mian Iftikhar Hussain at Bacha Khan Markaz.

The JUI-F side was led by former governor Haji Ghulam Ali, while the PPP delegation was headed by its district president Razaullah Khan. Also present were ANP Peshawar district president Arbab Muhammad Tahir Khan, general secretary Ghazanfar Ali, Metropolitan Peshawar president Arbab Rashid Samin, Haji Ghulam Hassan Afridi and other party leaders.

The meeting discussed local government elections in K-P, the deteriorating law-and-order situation and other key political issues.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the lasting and effective solution to the problems faced by the people of the province lay in a strong, empowered and well-resourced local government system. He regretted that both the federal and provincial governments were not serious about the genuine revival of the local bodies.

Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, holding local government elections and activating local governments was the constitutional responsibility of the province, he said. The provincial government, he added, was continuing to evade local body polls just as it had avoided other important matters.

Without the transfer of authority and resources, the local government system would remain a mere showpiece, he remarked. Real powers would reach the grassroots only when elected local representatives were given constitutional, administrative and financial autonomy.