LAHORE, Nov 26: The provincial assembly on Wednesday passed the Punjab Land Revenue (amendment) Bill 2008, with the treasury calling it an improvement on the existing local government and the opposition describing it as a regressive measure taking the province back to the colonial era.

Earlier, the treasury benches rejected all the amendments proposed by the opposition in the bill by calling them unnecessary, sparking off noisy protest. Mohsin Leghari of the opposition was the one who led the argument right from the word go.

Immediately after the session began at 10:15am, Mr Leghari stood on a point of order and drew attention of the chair towards press reports stating that the divisional commissioners can pass directions to the district nazim and conduct audit of tehsil unions. “Placing bureaucrats above the elected nazims is a flagrant violation of the spirit of democracy,” he protested.

Quoting the Local Government Act, he said, the provincial government could only move through the Local Government Commission and could not directly interfere in administrative or fiscal matters.

But, law minister Rana Sanaullah, basing his opinion on Article 128 and 132 of the LG act, said the chief executive could not only issue directions and order any action against a nazim but also suspend him from service for failure to comply with orders. “It is clearly stated in the act,” he added.

He further clarified that the provincial government would grant part of its powers to the newly-appointed divisional commissioners. The bill, passed on Wednesday, in no way had taken away any of the powers of the nazim at any tier, he said.

The provincial government was only trying to improve the system by appointing commissioners, covering four or five districts. With their induction, the chief minister would have to deal with only eight or nine commissioners instead of 35 nazims. And it would grant them chunk of its powers and they would only convey the directions issued by the provincial chief executive, he maintained.

The law minister also denied the opposition’s allegation that a third layer of governance was being introduced, which would cost highly to an already cash-strapped government. He, however, assured the house that the government would neither recruit new manpower nor spend any money on support structure; the entire system would be managed within the existing resources.

Rana Sanaullah continued: “The commissioners are being appointed at divisional level and they cannot encroach upon district setups. The revenue collection will continue through the district revenue officers. There will neither be any addition nor deletion in powers of the district governments, but the bill is aimed at only removing lacunae in the system and improving its efficiency.”

The explanation, however, failed to satisfy the opposition which wanted to continue debate and let more members speak on the issue. Its demand was turned down by the chair on technical grounds, provoking the opposition to stage a walkout. The deputy speaker’s attempt to bring the protesters back proved futile.