PML-N's Rafique opposes scrapping mayor posts

LAHORE:

Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique has said that abolishing the office of mayor of metropolitan or municipal corporations in major cities, including Islamabad and Lahore, would amount to weakening the local government system and strengthening the bureaucracy.

In a message posted on social media platform X, Saad said the mayor should be elected directly on the basis of "one man, one vote", while the constitutional powers taken away from local government institutions and given to other institutions or authorities at different times should be restored.

The PML-N leader said local governments should be given constitutional protection and financial autonomy, while provincial governments should end the concentration of powers at the provincial level.

Resources received from the Centre and provinces should be transferred to the district level through the Provincial Finance Award (PFC), he added.

The PML-N leader further questioned how the system could function when multiple authorities performed the same functions in a single city. "If six authorities in one city are doing the same job, how will the system work?"

He said establishing a system of empowered local governments was an urgent need of the time.

Saad further said that, apart from municipal committees, corporations and cantonment boards, the existence of all other institutions performing the same functions was in conflict with the Constitution.