RAWALPINDI: The National Assembly today [Aug 4] passed the Basic Democracies Order (Amendment) Bill to convert the members of the Electoral College into Basic Democrats and also to make the District Councils, Divisional Councils and the Municipalities as elective bodies. With the passage of this bill today Government legislative business is over. The next session of the Assembly is likely to be held at Dacca in the third week of November.

The Basic Democracies amending bill was substantially amended to accommodate the ruling party members’ views. The Bill now provides for more powers to the Vice-Chairmen of Local Bodies and District Councils. Another marked change in the character of the bill is that in future the Chairmen of the Union Councils will choose the members of District and Divisional Councils while for urban representation the Chairmen of Union Committees will elect the members of the Municipal Committees who in turn will elect the representatives for the Divisional Councils.

Opposing the Bill members of the Opposition Party advocated that the members of District Councils and Municipal Committees should be elected on adult suffrage. They said the people were fully capable of exercising their vote judiciously and there was no reason why the ruling party should be afraid of allowing the people to choose their representatives for Local Bodies directly.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2015

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