LAHORE: The treasury and opposition lawmakers sat together for the first time in a standing committee here on Wednesday to discuss the all-important new local body system the government has introduced through an ordinance.

The opposition had been boycotting all standing committees for the last three and a half years as a protest against the government’s deviation from the past tradition of nominating the opposition leader as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

The meeting presided over by Standing Committee on Local Government chairman Farooqullah Dareshak was attended by representatives of the ruling PTI, government’s ally PML-Q, opposition PML-N and PPP.

Local Government Secretary Nurul Amin Mengal briefed the participants on the key features of the ordinance.

Welcoming the opposition lawmakers, Local Government Minister Mian Mahmoodur Rashid said the treasury wished to take along the political rivals for the important lawmaking and hoped that all would give their input with good intentions.

Mr Dareshak assured all those in attendance that whatever the committee would decide with mutual consultation would be tabled in the Punjab Assembly without any change.

The opposition members initially suggested restoration of town committees and municipal committees which had been abolished in the ordinance. However, they sought time to discuss threadbare the ordinance in their respective parties before coming up with their final suggestions for making it a model law.

Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja agreed to give as much time as the opposition members would seek and giving due consideration to the suggestions to be put up by them.

It was decided to hold the next meeting of the committee on Jan 10, 2022.

Those in attendance were ministers Mian Aslam Iqbal and Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, parliamentary secretary Sajid Bhatti, PML-N’s Samiullah Khan, Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Awais Leghari, Ramzan Bhatti, Chaudhry Shafiq Anwar, Zeeshan Rafique, Sajjad Haider Nadeem, Zafar Iqbal Nagra and Javed Alauddin; PTI’s Gulraiz Afzal, Aminullah Khan and Momina Waheed, and PPP’s Usman Mahmood.

Though the Punjab government claims to have finalised the new local government (LG) system “with consensus”, it is facing a strong reaction from the opposition parties for completely ignoring the rural-urban divide in 26 districts of the province.

Only eight metropolitan corporations, besides Gujrat and Sialkot, will have segregation of rural and urban areas, but even these cities won’t have this division at tehsil level.

The opposition sees confrontation in the proposed LG assemblies as the district mayor elected with millions of votes could face resistance from a deputy mayor at tehsil level belonging to a different party in the running of the assembly affairs.

As the Local Government Ordinance 2021 has been presented in the Punjab Assembly, Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi asked the ruling PTI to take opposition on board and got a committee, comprising 11 treasury and nine opposition members, constituted to discuss the ordinance clause by clause to build a consensus.

As tenure of the incumbent local governments ends on Dec 31 (tomorrow), the Punjab government has finalised appointment of deputy commissioners as administrators in the districts, as was the case when the LGs were suspended by the PTI government in May 2019.

“The transition of local governments as per the new law will be considered after the upcoming LG polls in the province,” a senior officer told Dawn.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Wednesday reviewed the system of devolution of powers through the new Local Government Act.

The chief minister, in a meeting held in this regard, said the provincial cabinet had already approved the new local government law aimed at empowering people.

He said the new system had been finalised with consensus and this would play an important role in resolving the people’s problems at their doorstep.

Mr Buzdar said the direct elections of mayors and other local government heads would be held for the first time as this system would start a new era of development at the grassroots level.

Provincial ministers Basharat Raja, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Hashim Jawan Bakht, local government department secretary also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2021