LAHORE, July 22: The Pakistan People’s Party has said the proposed draft bill of the local body being introduced in the Punjab Assembly is a replica of 1979 local body ordinance promulgated by Gen Zia.

“Mixing apples with oranges is not acceptable in the proposed draft bill,” PPP central leader Sumsam Bokhari said in a statement here on Monday.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullha said the new local body bill would propose elections on a non-party basis at the councillor’s level and the party basis at the district level.

“Only remnants of Ziaul Haq can think of revival of former dictator’s local body system,” Mr Bokhari said.

The PPP leader said the nation could not afford the insidious consequences of Zia’s prescription any more that had already played havoc with the collective destiny of the nation. Gen Zia, he said, was responsible for extremism, terrorism and sectarianism in the country.

He said the PPP would not allow the Punjab government to bulldoze the legislation, adding it would collaborate with other opposition parties against the proposed draft. Mr Bokhari pointed out that the proposed legislation was also against the Charter of Democracy that envisaged the party basis elections at all tiers of the local bodies.

The 18th Amendment in the Constitution also made it obligatory on the respective governments to hold elections on a party basis, he said.He cautioned the proposed legislation, if introduced, would again unleash the vile practice of horse-trading with dire consequences of polluting the local politics that served as a nursery for the provincial and national leadership.

The PPP leader said they should desist from the repetition of the ugly practice for the sake of the future of democracy in the country.

Mr Bokhari said the apprehension of the Punjab government that the election results might lead to electoral debacle was well-founded because they had given a gift of price-hike, inflation and more loadshedding to the people.

He suggested that they should focus on providing relief to the people instead of playing politics with them.