LAHORE: The Punjab government intends to present a draft of the law of a new local government system to the prime minister as a part of its 100-day agenda, which he is scheduled to announce in Lahore on December 22, but insiders say chances of fresh local elections in near future are remote as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf set up cannot afford such a move economically and politically at the moment.

“Right now, the situation (regarding the draft of the law too) is still fluid. We are trying to present something to the prime minister for his December 22 function,” an insider told Dawn on Thursday.

The draft is being prepared by officials of various departments under the supervision of a cabinet sub-committee which is headed by Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan.

According to insiders, the main theme of the new local government being designed by the PTI government would be financial and political empowerment of people at the grassroots level. But the authorities concerned were still discussing how to materialise this idea.

They said the PTI government would announce the new law and introduce it in the Punjab Assembly for passage but the situation was not ripe for discarding the existing local bodies and holding fresh local elections, as the government could not afford it at the moment.

“Local elections involve billions of rupees and there is a serious economic crunch in the country. The PTI government would certainly like to win the elections, which looks hard at the moment. Allowing the PML-N to once again dominate the local bodies is not a good idea for the government,” said an insider.

Meanwhile, sources said the Punjab government had agreed to follow the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government model. It agreed to introduce a two-tier system, instead of the present one comprising three tiers -- union councils, tehsil councils and district councils.

But, the authorities were yet to decide whether they would like to skip tehsil councils or district councils in Punjab. Of late, the KP which had proposed tehsil and village council-based two-tier system, had indicated that it would retain the district councils.

Punjab too had agreed to replace union councils with village councils but desired to do away with the tehsil councils. Now, it was pleading for village and tehsil councils.

There was also a debate on who would write the annual confidential reports (ACRs) of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police (SP) and other officers in districts. The ACRs of all the remaining officials under the DCs and SPs would be written by the nazim or mayor.

An official said there was also a consensus on direct election for nazim or mayor slots in Punjab. Their electorate would be the entire district or tehsil. Nazim or mayor would contest election with a panel of candidates to the seats of his deputies. Each deputy would represent one tehsil in every district and would be elected by the voters of that specific tehsil or town. Heads of union or village councils would be the members of the district or tehsil assembly, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018