ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: The local government system has not been extended to the cantonment areas in the country because the armed forces have some reservations about it, a source in the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) told Dawn on Friday.
The NRB has sent a draft proposal to extend the local government system to cantonment areas to the prime minister’s secretariat for approval.
The source said under this plan, all cantonment boards in the country will have the status of Tehsil Union and they will work under District Nazim of their relevant districts.
However, the institution of armed forces, under whom the cantonments now function, wants these boards to remain independent of any elected institution.
The source said the population in some of the cantonment areas was more than the population in city district areas and all residents of the cantonment area paid the same number of taxes as those residing in the city districts.
“In view of this situation the new draft of the local government system in cantonment areas has a provision to bring all cantonment boards under local government fiscal system,” the source said.
He said if the residents of cantonment areas paid all taxes to the government then they have a right to have their share in fiscal transfer as well under the devolution plan.
But in order to be part of this fiscal system, the boards will have to come under the local government system first which can happen only after elections are held in the board areas and the local governments installed.
Talking to Dawn an official in the NRB said all stake-holders had been directed to complete the necessary arrangements for holding polls in cantonments. “LG polls will be held in all cantonments, come what may,” he said.
He said all cantonment boards had been directed to work in close coordination with the already established district governments in their respective cities to remove all bottlenecks, if any, in the way of holding polls within the boards.
He said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has issued instructions to hold the LG polls in all cantonments as soon as possible. The NRB, he said, had been given the task to prepare new Cantonment Act and other modalities to run these boards after the LG elections.
He said the NRB was working very hard to make all arrangements for holding LG polls in all the cantonment boards. “We are also looking into the legal aspects of the LG system to be introduced for the first time in cantonment boards,” he maintained.