Parties await passage of law to begin campaigning

ISLAMABAD:

There has virtually been no political activity ahead of the scheduled July 27 local government (LG) elections in Islamabad as a bill on LG polls in the capital is yet to get approval from the Senate.

Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Bill 2015, passed by the National Assembly on March 26, was tabled in the Senate on April 1 and was referred to Senate Standing Committee on Interior after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) objected to elections on non-party basis.

The committee, on the other hand, is yet to elect a chairman and start functioning. Twelve members of the committee --- three each from PPP and PML-N, one each from PTI, MQM, JUI-F, BNP-Awami and ANP, and an independent senator from FATA --- have been notified. An official of the Senate secretariat said it could be another three weeks before the committee elects a chairman and starts its work.

All senate committees were dissolved after half of the members of upper house of the parliament retired on March 11 on the expiry of their six-year term. Formation of new committees is in progress.

If the house passes the bill with amendments --- as is the opinion of many after the PPP, which dominates the 104-seat Senate, announced so --- the bill would be referred back to the National Assembly for a fresh vote.

Political parties in the capital are waiting for the law to be passed by the Senate before they could start preparations for the local bodies’ polls.

So far, only the Tahirul Qadri-led Pakistan Awami Tehreek has invited applications from its workers for the elections. The party will also hold a workers convention on Monday to kick-start its election campaign.

It would be the first time that local government elections will be held in urban areas of Islamabad. The last local government elections in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) were held in 1992, that too in rural areas only.

The Ministry of Interior has already notified some 79 union councils (UCs) in Islamabad.



According to the pending bill, the five-year term local governments will comprise a metropolitan corporation and union councils.

The residents would directly elect 1,027 members for the proposed 79 UCs. The councils will include 158 women, and 79 representatives each for peasants/workers, youth, and non-Muslims.

After the UCs elections, 79 UC chairmen; 26 women representatives; four representatives each for peasants/workers, youth, and non-Muslims; and one technocrat will form the 118-member metropolitan corporation.

The Election Commission of Pakistan is already carrying out delimitation of constituencies.

Parties looking up to the Senate

PPP Islamabad chapter president Faisal Sakhi Butt said the party had initiated ground work which included formation of ward committees.

“PPP is awaiting a notification by the party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari regarding formation of a committee that will award tickets to candidates,” he said.

Ali Nawaz Awan, a local PTI leader, said his party was waiting for the passage of the bill from Parliament. He said the bill in its current form was not acceptable to PTI, adding that the party’s ticket-awarding committee could be formed this month.

PML-N MNA for Islamabad Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said his party would “fully participate in the elections” and expressed hope that delay in the passage of local government bill from the parliament would not impact the election schedule.

PAT Islamabad President Abrar Raza said the party had so far received 58 applications for party tickets to contest elections, claiming that they will file candidates in all UCs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.