ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday directed the Punjab government to ensure an effective and public welfare-oriented local government (LG) system in the province.

Presiding over a meeting on the upcoming local bodies elections in Punjab, he said a functional LG system was the guarantor of national development.

The prime minister stressed the need for ensuring effectiveness of the local government system through representation of all segments, particularly women, youth, farmers and businessmen.

The prime minister was quoted as saying: “With an efficient LG system, majority of the civic problems can be solved.” He was of the view that the aim of the LG system was to transfer power to a lower level.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood, Khusro Bakhtiar, Asad Umar, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Hammad Azhar and PM’s special assistant Dr Shahbaz Gill.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and provincial ministers, including Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Khan, Mohammad Basharat Raja and Mian Mahmood Rasheed, attended the meeting via video link.

Following an unexpected defeat of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the recently held first phase of LG polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a stronghold of the party, the prime minister got annoyed and dissolved organisational structure of the PTI across the country and decided to monitor LG polls in all provinces himself.

He admitted that wrong selection of candidates had led to the party’s defeat in KP. He said the party leadership should strictly select candidates on merit.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2022