ISLAMABAD, April 24: The local government system enforced by President Pervez Musharraf as the centrepiece of his discredited political scheme faced its most serious challenge in the National Assembly on Thursday with members from both sides of the political divide calling for its drastic reform or abolition.

There were more calls for a reformation than replacement at the start of a debate on an adjournment motion moved by some members of the ruling coalition with most speakers accusing the previous regime of using the system as a political tool for rigging the Feb 18 elections.

The debate will continue on Friday when the government is likely to inform the house about what it plans to do with the system, which President Musharraf often called the “essence of democracy” that he thought transferred decision-making to the grassroots.

There were also demands from both sides of the house for direct election of district and tehsil nazims, while one member of the Pakistan People’s Party called for future local government elections to be held on party rather than the present non-party basis.

The debate came a day after the Punjab government decided to seal the records and freeze bank accounts of all district, tehsil and union councils in the province for a special audit.

One of the adjournment motion movers, Birjees Tahir of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, called for the abolition of the system which, he said, promoted corruption in the name of development, particularly in Punjab, and failed to keep law and order or control prices.

But PPP’s Ms Farzana Raja, who too alleged numerous wrongdoings under the previous regime, demanded reforms to make the system independent of the government and its institutions elected on party basis to prevent it from becoming a vehicle of clans.

Former Punjab chief minister Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, who belongs to the previously ruling PML but was elected to the house as an independent, came out as the day’s most ardent advocate of reforming the system with changes such as decentralisation from what he saw as centralisation through federal control until 2009, direct election of district and tehsil nazims and revival of municipal and town committees and of magistracy to control food prices and adulteration.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Salahuddin from Hyderabad cited his party’s nazim in Karachi as an example of what he called non-discriminatory service to people and said any move to abolish the system merely on the ground of being a product of President Musharraf would only encourage conspiracies even against the new government elected under the same president.

Former PML minister Amir Muqam from the NWFP called for strengthening the system by providing for direct election of district and tehsil nazims.

PPP’s Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani called it a ‘failed experiment,’ demanded a review of the system by a special committee and replacement of ‘these mini-kingdoms’ with bodies concerned only with local development.