February 20, 2003	Thursday	Zul Hijjah 18, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: The process of delimitation of cantonments will be started within a couple of months for holding local government polls, it was decided at a meeting held at National Reconstruction Bureau on Wednesday.

The meeting, presided over by NRB chief Daniyal Aziz, was attended by defence and law secretaries, quarter master-general, military lands and cantonments director-general and Rawalpindi station commander.

Talking to Dawn, the NRB chief said all stakeholders had been directed to complete necessary arrangements for holding polls in cantonments. “Local government polls will be held in all cantonments at any cost,” he said.

He said the meeting decided to provide a model of local governments in cantonments through appropriate legislation.

He said all concerned quarters had been directed to maintain close coordination with district government to remove bottlenecks in this regard.

He said three technical committees had been formed to meet the provincial governments’ authorities to learn how they establish local governments.

The government had decided to hold local government elections in all cantonments, he said.

He said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had issued instructions for holding of the polls as soon as possible.

He said the NRB had been given the task to prepare new cantonment act and other modalities to run the boards in a better way after the election.

The NRB chief said the bureau would finalize the draft of the act in the next month and send it to the law ministry for vetting.

“We are looking into the legal aspects of the local government system to be introduced in the cantonment boards,” he said.

An official of directorate-general of cantonment boards said that earlier the elections in cantonment boards in Punjab were scheduled to be held on May 20, 2001, with the local bodies elections, but they were delayed.