LAHORE, April 12: The newly-constituted Punjab Local Government Commission is reported to be holding its maiden meeting on Friday (April 18) to discuss issues related to the new local body system.

The six-member commission was established only a few days ago. It is headed by the provincial local government minister and has one nominee each of the leader of the house and the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly besides two public representatives. The provincial local government secretary is ex-officio member of the commission.

The constitution of the commission in all provinces is provided in the new local government law.

A commission member told this reporter here on Saturday that he had so far not received any agenda of the first meeting of the body. He said the commission would be required to oversee the functioning of the local government system in the province and look into complaints against/of Nazims, Naib Nazims, etc.

A kind of tussle between the local bodies and the provincial government has already surfaced in the last few months as the latter wants to change the local government law in such a way that the legislators also get a share in the development works in their constituencies. The provincial government has already formed a committee, which also include some Nazims on it, in order to look into the possibilities of changing the law and allowing the MNAs and MPAs to play a role in the development of their areas. The speculations about the intentions of the elected government to drastically curtail the powers of the local bodies had led the president to write a letter to the governors to see that the local government system devised by the National Reconstruction Bureau was implemented in letter and spirit. The Punjab government set up the LGC only after the receipt of the letter.

Provincial law and local government minister Raja Basharat has been reported to have said on Friday that the Punjab had sent a reply to the president’s letter. He was also quoted to have said that 99 per cent of the local government system had been implemented in the province.