LAHORE: The PPP has demanded the Punjab government hold local government (LG) elections in the province without any further delay.

“The track record of the PML-N Punjab government regarding the local government is hopeless because it does not want to devolve power at the grassroots level,” PPP Punjab Secretary-General Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said on Thursday.

He said the PPP was fully prepared to contest the local bodies’ polls.

He said the PML-N government in Punjab had managed the postponement of local bodies’ elections on one pretext or another by introducing amendments to the law.

“The government diverted the local government funds to complete projects like metro bus in big cities thus depriving the rural population of the delivery of services,” he said.

Kaira said the reconciliation of funds used by the government other than the local bodies’ projects was still pending and the auditor general had raised objections in this regard.

He said the recent survey conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) suggested that the people were in favour of local government to address their problems.

He said the Punjab government had been treating the rural population with discrimination.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2014