LAHORE, Sept 20: Senior Punjab government functionaries on Saturday began preparing for the prime minister’s meeting on the future of the local government system while ignoring the opinion that this could not be abolished without amending the Constitution.

The government team believes that the system can be abolished under Article 268 (2) of the Constitution which provides that on the recommendation of a provincial government, the president can allow amendment or repeal of the Local Government Ordinance.

But some other officials, who requested anonymity, told Dawn that the system could not be abolished merely through this article. This was so because Article 140-A of the Constitution provided that “each province shall form a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial authority upon elected representatives of the local governments.”

They said the provincial governments would have to wait for the repeal of the 17th Amendment through which this article was included in the constitution. Otherwise, the abolition of the system merely with the permission of the president could be challenged.

Another opinion being ignored by the government is that over 1,000 laws amended for introducing the local government system were also a hurdle in the way of abolishing it, and restoring the defunct offices of deputy commissioners and executive magistracy.

“Yes, amending these laws will require a lot of effort and time. We are focusing on the immediate benefits which the province will have without making this consequential legislation,” said one of the senior officials preparing Punjab’s case for the prime minister’s meeting.

The immediate benefits as enlisted by him were curtailment of the unnecessarily inflated size of the government and establishment of its writ, prevention of wastage of funds and further polarisation of society.

The official said the local government system was bound to go as all the provinces did not want it. The ministerial committee formed by the federal government did agree on it and “we all are going to demand abolition of the system and restoration of the deputy commissioners,” he said. He said the provinces would demand the grant of right to introduce the local government system according to their local requirements.—INTIKHAB HANIF