LG system for capital: Proposed bill resembles Swiss cheese

Glaring holes in hastily-prepared document.

ISLAMABAD:

Dismissed from the government for corruption? Convicted of an offence against the security, interests or ideology of Pakistan? As long as five years have passed since the sentence was completed, you’re still eligible to become mayor of the federal capital.

This is among the nuggets in the draft of the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2013 which was tabled in the National Assembly on Monday by Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid.

The hastily-prepared draft bill includes a number of inconsistencies and seems to still need to be properly vetted and possibly amended to iron out the potential sources of trouble.

Delimitation

Urban Islamabad would become a metropolitan corporation, with its union councils (UCs) to be separate from the rural areas. The proposed bill has set conditions targeted at ensuring that UCs are relatively consistent in population terms, although this may create problems for the existing ones which are quite large but low in population compared to those  which will have to be carved out of the urban area. Many will need to be merged or absorbed to bring them at par with the more densely populated urban UCs.

Makeup of UCs

The makeup of UCs is quite clearly defined. A UC shall consist of a chairman, vice-chairman, six general councillors, and two women, one peasant, and one youth member on reserve seats. One additional reserve seat will be given to a religious minority in areas where there are at least 200 registered non-Muslim voters.

However, the makeup of the metropolitan corporation is ambiguous, with the mayor, deputy mayor and chairmen of all UCs joined by an undefined number of women, peasants, technocrats, youth and non-Muslims on reserved seats. The numbers would be defined by the federal government through a notification, and may be changed “from time to time”, which could easily lead to a bloc of unelected members gaining disproportionate power over the elected bloc.

The chairman of the respective body shall also be the principal accounting officer. All accounts are also to be made publicly available on the Internet.

For seniority purposes, the older, rather than more experienced or qualified deputy mayor is to be considered the ranking deputy.

Interestingly, the term “chairman” is used throughout the document, although there is no explicit bar on a woman becoming the head of the UC.

Meanwhile, what is to be expected in performance terms from the youth representative, who can be in his or her teens, remains up in the air.

Accountability

Persons who “cease to be citizens of Pakistan or acquire citizenship of a foreign state” are ineligible, but no explicit mention is made of the status of those already having dual nationality.

People working for the government are also ineligible, but as previously mentioned, those dismissed from service for any violation including “misconduct”, “moral turpitude or misuse of power”, or “activities prejudicial to the ideology, interest, security, unity, solidarity, peace and integrity of Pakistan” are ineligible only for a period of between two and five years after completing their term of conviction, depending on the offence. This may be seen as a backdoor for disgraced persons, especially land grabbers to enter the political realm.

As for using the local government system as a platform for higher office, mayors, deputy mayors, and UC chairmen and vice chairmen are required to resign before contesting any seat outside of the local government system, but other office bearers are free to contest while maintaining their seats.

There is also no bar on a local government member who is booted for misconduct to contest the next election on the very same seat or higher office. Bars are only in place for the rest of the same election cycle.

Meanwhile, the penalty for corruption has been capped at three years in jail with a fine of up to Rs100,000. The base fine for election rigging however, is a mere Rs2,000, with the punishment for more aggravated forms going up to six months in jail and a Rs20,000 fine. The latter also applies to government servants found assisting a candidate.

Interestingly, the document seems to have been prepared by a cat person, as the strict fines and conditions for animals seem limited to livestock and dogs. They have also not been well thought through, as the Rs400 fine for simply walking a dog without a leash in a residential area is the same as the fine for releasing a rabid dog in the same area.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2013.