LAHORE, April 5: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said the local government system will not be abolished. This he said while talking to different delegations of union councils hailing from various parts of the province here on Monday.

The chief minister stressed the need for strengthening the present local government system. He said no one would be allowed to dissolve local governments as these were serving the people at a grass roots level.

He said though the local government elections were held on non-party basis, 70 per cent of the town, tehsil and district Nazims belonged to the PML-Q. He said that 28 out of 34 district Nazims in the Punjab belonged to the PML-Q.

The government, he said, would launch mega projects in various districts in consultation with members of national and provincial assemblies and through utilization of their funds. A committee had been set up to improve the local government law and bring positive changes to it, he said and added that around 60 percent district Nazims were members of this committee.

Mr Elahi said he had been supporting the local government system as he had worked as councillor, district council chairman and provincial minister for local government for several years. He said there should be no clash between the members of national and provincial assemblies and district Nazims, and instead, they should work for the benefit of the common man. -PPI