LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed much trumpeted amendment to the Local Government Bill, paving the way for addition of five indirectly elected members in the House of eight elected ones in each union council.
Though the opposition was spirited and logical in opposition to the amendment, it failed to deter the Treasury from turning the ordinance into an amendment, and becoming a part of the bill that would now determine numerical strength and process of election.
Waqas Hassan Moakal thought that the amendment goes against the grain of democracy. What kind of democracy would it be where 40 per cent of the House would consist of selected members? How could eight elected members be allowed to select another five (two women, one worker, one youth and one non-Muslim members) and the sum total could still be called democratic?
Why do we have to bring in selected members in the democratically elected house, except for promoting cronyism and possible corruption? This is a recipe for weakening the very purpose of the whole exercise and the PML-N is pushing its agenda at the risk of its democratic credentials, he claimed.
Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, the opposition leader, was no less scathing. Leading the opposition attack on the amendment, he wondered why the government needed third amendment to the bill if it had thought through the bill in the first place. The government is only trimming the whole thing to suite it politically.
“The opposition is helpless in stopping the amendment because of numerical weakness but it would not be part of the sin, which the government is trying to commit by carrying this bill through,” he said and left the House to avoid being part of the process.
However, before leaving, he insisted the bill is threatening for democracy and would have national ramifications. That is why the opposition wanted government to stop and think before pushing ahead. It should at least take the bill to the people, let them debate it and come up with some tangible suggestions to strengthen, not weakening, the democratic process, he claimed.
Rana Sanaullah, the minister for law, however, thought that all what the opposition was saying now was repetition of what it said earlier.
“The amendment has been in the process for the last few months and has been debated and thoroughly discussed at various levels during the preparation and debate at the committee’s proceeding. Why doubt the integrity of those elected by the people? Why these fears are being overblown that they would make money out of nominations?
There is no foolproof system to check thing as happened in the case of a chief minister (KP), where he nominated three of his women relatives to the parliament, he said sarcastically and added: “The purpose of the amendment is to promote those segments of society who are otherwise less likely to win elections. It is being introduced with good intentions and we should let it work rather than acting out of fears and trying to kill the amendment.”
The Treasury also laid four ordinances in the House before it was adjourned for Thursday morning.
Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2015
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