RAWALPINDI: Although the PTI has set its eyes on replacing the PML-N following the completion of the cantonment areas’ elected members’ terms in April next year, there is some confusion about the next elections.

The cantonment board elections were held in April 2015 on orders from the Supreme Court on party basis for the first time. Local government elections in the cantonment areas were previously held on a non-party basis.

The PML-N won majorities in 42 cantonments across the country in the last elections. There are two cantonments in Rawalpindi, the Chaklala and Rawalpindi cantonments, which have 10 wards each.

A total of 19 PML-N members were elected from as many wards, while the Jamaat-i-Islami won one seat. Neither the PPP nor the PTI won a single seat on the cantonment boards despite fielding candidates for all 20.

A senior PTI leader toldDawnthat party workers want the cantonment board elections to be held on time, but there are some problems and the federal government will likely delay them.

He said the PTI is reluctant to enter in the local government elections because of the ongoing anti-encroachment drive and the shortage of water and gas in the cantonment areas. Although the party is not involved in these two key issues, he said, local residents believe the government has not resolved them in the last five months.

The party leader said the local government elections in the cantonments would likely be delayed for a year, and a final decision in this regard will be made soon. PTI MNAs and MPAs will manage local issues in the absence of cantonment representatives, he added.

A senior Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) official toldDawnthere is some confusion over the elections as they will be decided by the federal government, and over the terms of the elected members; the last elections were held in April 2015, but members took their oaths of office in June that year.

The federal government will decided these matters, and information on this has already been provided, he said. Residents of the cantonments, meanwhile, are not happy with the elected cantonment board members, whether say have failed to resolve the water and natural gas shortages in the last few years.

“PML-N elected members of the cantonment boards failed to solve the problems of the local residents despite having their governments in the province as well as the centre,” Mohammad Umer, who lives in the Peshawar Road area, said.

Siham resident Yasir Ahmed said people are facing problems obtaining birth and death certificates from the civic organisation.

“The bureaucracy runs the affairs of the cantonment boards and the local residents have to wait months. It is necessary for local residents to clear water charges before getting these certificates while water is not supplied regularly to locals,” he said.

Sajjad Haider from Kamalabad also spoke about the shortage of water and gas, which elected members had failed to resolve, as well as a “shortage of space in the existing graveyard”. He added: “There are no health facilities in the cantonment areas and people have to go to government-run hospitals in the city areas.”

According to Chaklala Cantonment Board Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz, the elected members did their best to deliver but, he admitted, they failed to bring any mega-projects for the welfare of civilian residents.

“Basically, there is no direct grant for elected members of the cantonments like local governments in the city areas. The Punjab government gave special grants for development in the union councils while federal and provincial governments did not give any grant for elected members or wards of cantonment areas,” he said.

Changes need to be made to the 1924 Cantonment Act and special grants should be allocated for each ward, he said, adding: “Yes, we did not solve the water issue but the present federal government also failed to bring any change to the old system.”

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2018