LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed the Local Government Bill 2025, giving the local government effectively under bureaucratic control by making deputy commissioners heads of district authorities of devolved departments and district coordination forum.

According to legal experts like Mubeen Qazi, the new law is a breach of the Article 140-A of the Constitution, which specifically requires that each province shall devolve administrative, financial and political powers and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments, as empowerment of the elected heads of the local government has been ignored in it.

The elected heads and/or chairpersons have rather been given under the control of deputy commissioners as there is no district level local government, whose head could be appointed as the chairperson of the district authorities. The elected chairpersons will be members of the district authorities to be led by the DCs.

Unlike the earlier laws, it denies special status to Lahore as the provincial capital as well as other big cities may also be demarcated as more than one town corporation in the district.

Legal experts say law breaches Article 140-A for ignoring empowerment of elected heads; Lahore doesn’t have provincial capital status

There will be no more directly elected chairman/vice-chairman even in the union council.

There will be municipal corporation for an integrated urban area in a district, having population above 200,000; municipal committee for an integrated urban area in a district having population above 25,000; and tehsil council comprising rural area of a tehsil and urban area not classified above.

A local government shall consist of head, deputy mayor or vice chairperson, as the case may be; members of town corporation and municipal corporation will be chairpersons of all UCs in its local area.

A union council shall consist of nine general members and four members on reserved seats – one woman member, one peasant in a rural UC or one worker in urban UC, one youth, and one non-Muslim member.

Chairperson and vice-chairperson of a union council shall be from amongst the members of UC.

A tehsil council shall consist of a chairperson and two vice-chairpersons, chairpersons of all UCs in its local area as ex-officio members; and reserved members.

A town corporation shall consist of a mayor and two deputy mayors; chairpersons of all UCs in its local area as its ex-officio members; and reserved members.

The municipal corporation shall consist of mayor and two deputy mayors, chairpersons of all UCs in its local area as its ex-officio members; and reserved members.

The reserved seats of the above categories shall comprise 14 per cent women, 3pc non-Muslim, 5pc peasant or worker, 2pc technocrat, 1pc youth and disabled each.

A municipal committee shall consist of chairperson and vice-chairperson; and ex-officio members and members on reserved seats, which will vary from five to 13 in respect of the number of union councils in it.

The government may, through a notification, devolve following 10 district level office of the government departments to the local governments in a district: health (primary and preventive care); education (school education to the extent of primary education and school enrollment); social welfare; population control; sports; transport (local transport & traffic planning); civil defence; public health engineering; arts & culture; and tourism.

The devolved offices shall be administered, operated and managed at the district level, through the respective district authority established under the Act.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2025