LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, an important ally of the PTI government, has pinpointed flaws in the Punjab Local Government Bill 2019 which is set to become law after the approval of the governor.

The existing local councils dominated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will cease to exist once the new bill is enacted into law.

PML-Q MNA Moonis Elahi has come up with his party’s concerns believing that the new local body law may increase administrative expenses “six times” because of increase in the number of union councils.

Moonis says expansion to enhance cost by six times

“(There are) several inherent faults (in the new local government bill) such as taking already a significant number of 4,000 plus units (union councils) to 24,000 plus village councils/ panchayats. This will increase your administrative expense six times. Minimum of Rs8 billion every year spent on salaries and expenses,” Moonis tweeted.

He further said: “KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Punjab can’t be compared. The difference in size of population is huge. #PTI needs to rethink strategy of copy and pasting KP formula.”

Following Moonis’ tweets on the matter, PTI stalwart Jehangir Tareen telephoned him (Moonis) on Friday and assured him that both the coalition partners would have a thorough consultation on any such issue in the future.

When asked about concerns of his party at this stage, Moonis told Dawn that the parliamentary party members had raised concerns on the final draft of the local government bill but Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told them that the PML-Q had to support Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PTI, therefore, they should simply vote in favour of the bill in the House.

“Since the bill is going to be approved by the governor shortly, we are not going to oppose it at any forum. These were the concerns we wanted to bring forth,” he said.

To a question whether his party’s concerns justified the opposition’s objections to the new bill, Moonis said: “The opposition is only doing politics on this issue. We fully support Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to implement the coalition government’s agenda to devolve the power at the grassroots level.”

On the other hand, the Pakistan Peoples Party says Moonis Elahi has exposed the poor legislation on the local government. “The PPP had already declared that the failed KP model was being replicated in Punjab. This new law will be enacted through disqualified Jehangir Tareen, destroying the governance in Punjab,” PPP parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Hasan Murtaza said.

He further said the people of Punjab would soon exact revenge from the PTI for its bad policies.

The PML-N had challenged the new LG bill and expected dissolution of the present set-up of the local government in the province in the Lahore High Court.

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday last also passed the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils Bill 2019. Tehsil councils in rural areas and municipal councils and corporations in urban areas will be the first tier of the new system. The second tier would be panchayat councils in rural areas and neighbourhood councils in urban areas. Tehsil and municipal councils will be elected through party-based direct elections, but elections to panchayat and neighbourhood councils will be held on a non-party basis under the new law.

For the first time in the provincial history, funds will be directly transferred to panchayat and neighbourhood councils. All allied institutions and departments such as the Lahore Development Auth­ority, the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency and the Water and Sanitation Agency would function under local governments.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2019