ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday announced that the local government system would not be excluded from Schedule 6 of the Constitution and local government associations would be formed all over the country to protect the interests of district governments, National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman Daniyal Aziz told reporters at a press conference.

The NRB chief said the president announced this in Rawalpindi while presiding over a meeting on the local government system attended by all stakeholders of the devolution system.

According to the Constitution, the laws in Schedule 6 cannot be amended without president’s approval.

The president, he said, had rejected the demand of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) regarding the removal of the local government system from the schedule.

“The local government system will sustain in the country and it would not be rolled back at any cost,” Mr Aziz said.

He said local government associations were being formed in all provinces of the country. “Nazims and Naib Nazims of different tiers in the local government system would be their office-bearers. Four local government associations have already been formed in the Frontier province,” he added.

The president, he said, wanted to remove all bottlenecks and lacunas in the devolution system to meet its objective aimed at transfer of power to the grass root level.

The NRB chief said it was decided in the meeting that the first national convention on the devolution system would be held shortly in Islamabad. It would be attended by all stakeholders of the system and parliamentarians.

He said President Musharraf would preside over the event to be held at the convention centre. “The stakeholders would share their experience of the devolution system and suggest proposals to remove any lacunas in it,” he maintained.

All MPAs and MNAs would also be invited to chalk out a joint strategy to resolve differences between the provincial and district governments.

The meeting also decided to link up the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), recently-formulated by National Accountability Bureau (NAB), with the devolution plan for good governance.