November 02, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 20, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 1: The Punjab government is going to create an authority for the improvement and preservation of historical places, the Walled City in the first instance, as against the advice of its legal experts who had earlier warned that it would rob nazims and officials of the local councils of their role envisaged in the Local Government Ordinance 2001.

The authority is being created through an ordinance that has been approved by the provincial cabinet in its recent meeting, setting aside the opinion of the legal experts.

“The opinion still exists but the government is going to promulgate the ordinance to create the authority which will start functioning through a notification, to be issued after an approval by the president,” a senior government official said on the condition of anonymity.

According to an earlier observation made by legal experts, the authority’s defined role and powers were actually being exercised by the local councils’ elected representatives and officials under the LGO. Therefore, the government required to first amend the local government law to create the authority and to allow it to function without having any clash with the role and powers of the local councils concerned, they had suggested.

The official said as was obvious the authority was being created mainly for executing the WB funded Walled City of Lahore development and preservation project, launched by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi earlier this year.

He said the establishment of the authority would limit the role of town and union nazims of the Walled City to just registering births, issuing death certificates and running the reconciliation councils. And it was yet to be seen as to how they would be able to satisfy their voters after losing their authority over local matters like sanitation, development, etc, he added.

“Future local elections in the Walled City would prove real difficult for the candidates having nothing to offer to their voters but solution to their family disputes or favours like issuing them death and birth certificates when and if needed,” the official said.

Development funds had been a major attraction for the local leaders and those in the Walled City were going to lose them because of the authority, he said.