LAHORE, Nov 14: The law that allows delay in the announcement of local elections for another eight months was among six notified on Wednesday. All these laws were passed by the Punjab Assembly in its most recent sitting.

The laws were approved by Speaker Rana Iqbal in his capacity as acting governor in the absence from the country of Governor Latif Khosa who had objected to almost all laws earlier passed by the assembly, returning them for revision.

The original Punjab Local Government Bill 2012 sought legal cover for a six-month delay in the announcement of the local elections. But the standing committee the speaker referred it to extend the period to eight months.

According to legal experts, the eight-month period is applicable with immediate effect. This means the PML-N government has a cover against holding the election till July next year, and will continue to control the district governments through the bureaucracy for the remainder of term that ends in March 2013.

“The democratic provincial government has denied the people a chance to elect their representatives for the district governments. It wants to itself run the district governments through official machinery,” remarked an official, who didn’t want to be named.

The PML-N government had in the very beginning abhorred the current local government system fathered by Gen Pervez Musharraf, indicating to replace it with a system of its own. Several attempts were made to create a new system on the model of the 1979 local government model of Gen Ziaul Haq, even if certain ‘good’ aspects from Gen Musharraf’s devolution-based system were to be added to it. But when a draft law was finally sent to the assembly earlier this year, it carried no element of devolution which is mandatory under the constitution.

Experts say the draft bill is a ditto copy of Gen Zia’s 1979 system. It was sent to a standing committee of the assembly. Insiders say the committee had shown little interest in finalising the bill – which they say is borne out by the fact that it met only once to deliberate upon the draft.

From among the other five laws notified on Wednesday, an important one relates to the Punjab government’s pet rapid bus system project.