Opposition: Mehmoodur Rasheed unhappy with local government bill delay

Says parties have reservations over indirect election to reserved seats

LAHORE: Leader of Opposition Mehmoodur Rasheed said on Tuesday he was disappointed that the Punjab Assembly’s session had been prorogued in a “dramatic fashion” without allowing a debate on the local government (LG) bill.

Speaking to the media in front of the assembly secretariat, Rasheed criticised the government for “deceiving” the opposition on about the bill.

“We had wanted to take up the issue on Wednesday... indirect elections will only promote horse trading,” he said. Rasheed said the debate had remained pending on Monday for lack of quorum. The matter was not on the agenda on Tuesday because it was a private-member day.

He said the government had delayed implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter. It seemed that the government was not interested in holding local governmtn elections, he said. He said several political parties had expressed reservations over indirect election to reserve seats mentioned in the LG Ordinance.

“Elections are round the corner. It seems that they [the government] want to hold the polls under the Ordinance,” he said.  “Women make up 50 per cent of the country’s population. This is unacceptable,” he said.

Later, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that according to rules, development funds could not be released and tenders could not be awarded after the announcement of the election schedule. He said the government was following the rule. Dismissing the opposition’s apprehensions regarding delay in passage of the LG Bill, the minister said the legislation would be carried out after some amendments were made to the ordinance. He said the period of LG Ordinance, approved in 2013, had been extended until October 14.

Sanaullah said that an alliance of opposition parties ahead of the elections showed the strength of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the province. “They have failed to forge a strong alliance. Differences emerged within hours of forming the coalition,” he said. He said the PML-N would not make an alliance with any party. However, he said, some adjustments might be made at local level.

He said a board had been constituted to select candidates at the district level. He said district boards would select candidates with the approval of the provincial parliamentary board.

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