July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 24: The National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) has started consultation with provinces regarding handing over the control of Local Government (LG) system to provincial governments.

“Since the local government is a provincial subject, all local government initiatives have to be fully owned by the provincial governments for smooth implementation,” NRB Chairman Dr Asim Hussain said during a meeting with Car Wright, Secretary of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF).

He was accompanied by a two-member delegation of the Local Government Association of United Kingdom.

“Based on the experience of seven-year working of local governments, the NRB, in consultation with provincial governments, is now reviewing the legal framework of local governments with a view to addressing the implementation problems,” the NRB chief said.

The government has agreed, in principle, to shift the control of LG system from Centre to provincial governments.

Presently, due to domination of coalition parties at the provincial level and Pakistan Muslim League-Q at local government level, the LG system is all but dysfunctional.

An example is that the Rawalpindi District Government has moved Lahore High Court, urging that the Punjab government be barred from interfering in its affairs.

Opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, has said that his party will not allow the government to wrap up the LG system, which replaced the 150-year-old magisterial system.