PESHAWAR: Opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday vehemently opposed the proposed Tehsil Local Government Rules of Business for governing the newly-elected tehsil councils across the province declaring the rules against the Constitution and Local Government Act.

On a point of order, Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani told the assembly that the draft rules were prepared to bring drastic changes in the Rules of Business to reduce powers of the newly-elected mayors and chairmen of city and tehsil councils, but unfortunately, they hadn’t been shared with the opposition.

He said the powers and functions of elected representatives were being minimised and if the draft rules were approved, the mayors and chairmen of the city and tehsil councils would work under the relevant assistant commissioners.

“Subordinating the directly-elected mayor, who obtained 70,000 plus votes in the local government election, to the assistant commissioner is tantamount to ridiculing the entire democratic system,” he said.

Insists govt move meant to make elected council heads work under ACs

Mr Durrani claimed that the proposed rules violated Articles 140 and 141 of the Constitution.

He said under the proposed law, the deputy commissioner would assist the mayor and chairperson of the relevant city and tehsil council.

The opposition leader said if the draft rules were approved, the opposition would challenge them in the court of law.

He asked Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan, who was presiding over the sitting, to set up a committee of treasury and opposition members to frame the draft rules with consensus.

Mr Durrani asked the government to empower the elected representatives instead of bureaucracy.

Awami National Party member Khushdil Khan advocate seconded the opposition leader’s opinion and insisted that there was ‘inconsistency’ in the proposed rules.

He said all powers had been transferred to the assistant commissioner instead of the tehsil council chairman.

MPA of the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Inayatullah Khan said empowered local bodies were the cornerstone of the ruling PTI’s manifesto.

He said the powers of the representatives of the local government representatives had already been curtailed in the 2019 amended legislation.

Mr Inayatullah said transferring the powers of the elected representatives to unelected people (bureaucrats) was a violation of the PTI’s manifesto.

He said all over the world, the directly-elected mayors hold the powers as well.

Member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Sardar Mohammad Yousaf proposed the postponement of the second phase of the local body elections scheduled for Jan 16 next year and said polling was not possible in the snowbound areas.

Responding to the opposition’s objections, labour and human rights minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the tehsil council rules of business were currently pending with the local government department.

He said the draft rules would be placed before the provincial cabinet for examination and approval.

The minister, however, denied the reports regarding the curtailment of the powers of the mayor and tehsil council chairmen and said in the new local government system, the size of units was small and therefore, the assistant commissioners had been authorised to ‘oversee’ some functions.

Also, the house admitted an adjournment motion of MMA lawmaker Inayatullah Khan regarding the exclusion of the province’s 40 hydropower projects of 3150 megawatts from the 10 years phase of the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company.

Mr Inayatullah said the NDTC had approved only 10 projects of 786 megawatts for the province.

He said the exclusion of 40 projects on the pretext of being too expensive would cost the province the loss of $9 billion direct investment.

The opposition member said even the projects for which the provincial government had already signed memorandum of understanding with Korean firms were not part of that phase.

Also in the session, the government introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Science, Technology and Innovation Endowment Fund Bill, 2021. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Razmak Cadet College Regulations (Repeal) Bill, 2019, was also tabled in the House.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2021