MULTAN: The Punjab mayors’ convention announced on Saturday that they would support the steps of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to strengthen the local government system.

Addressing the convention, Mayor Bahawalpur Aqeel Najam Qureshi said the purpose of the convention was to exchange point of view over the prevailing situation regarding local government system.

He said it was the third activity of the mayors as two conferences had already been conducted to devise strategy to strengthen the local government system.

“There are rumours that the government is going to dissolve the local government system; however we want to strengthen the system and will accept the steps of the PTI government,” he said.

Qureshi said they would continue with the vision of development initiated by the PML-N government. He said: “The mayors want to complete their tenure.” He said as per Punjab Local Government Act 2013, the system could not be dissolved before the completion of tenure.

Lord Mayor Lahore Mubashir Javed said they would continue to hold their meetings to remove the loopholes. He said instead of winding up the system the PTI government should bring about reforms.

“The local government system should continue and complete its tenure as we have been elected by the masses,” he said. Mayor Multan Naveedul Haq Arrain was the host while mayors of Sahiwal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Sialkot, Gujranwala also attended the meeting. The mayors of Sargodha and Rawalpindi could not attend the meeting due to their personal engagements.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2018