LAHORE, June 10: The new local government law is a ditto copy of the Local Government Ordinance 1979 introduced by military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq that has reportedly been prepared under direction by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, shunning devolution of power in clear violation of the Constitution and the much talked about Charter of Democracy.

A cursory look at the draft law tabled in the Punjab Assembly for adoption shows that four-year painstaking efforts by politicians, legal experts and bureaucrats aimed at doing away with the existing local government system, as desired by the PML-N government and evolving a new mechanism conforming to the Article 140-A of the Constitution which provides for devolution of power to local councils, have gone waste.

The Article 140-A was inserted into the Constitution by Gen Musharraf but was carried on at the time of passing the 18th Amendment unanimously by all parties sitting in the parliament, including the PML-N.

While burning midnight oil for creating a new system, the experts also kept in mind the PML-N’s commitment to devolution of power to local councils and early local elections it had made in the Charter of Democracy. The first draft was prepared when Dost Muhammad Khosa was local government minister. This was publicised for getting public feedback. But after junior Khosa’s departure from the office, the task was assigned to his father Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa.

Another high-profile committee headed by MNA Zahid Hamid continued to work on the new local government system.

Though the committee kept its proceedings secret, it reportedly did try to work out a system that could not deny devolution of power.

Finally, the task for framing a draft law for a new system was given to Local Government Secretary Khyzar Hayat Gondal.

He and legal experts of the government fine tuned a draft reportedly prepared by the Zahid Hamid committee when the Supreme Court of Pakistan desired local elections.

Now a number of insiders, who request anonymity, say on good authority that the draft law carried devolution though not in its present shape.

They say it was sent to the chief minister for his approval and remained with his secretariat for many days. When it was returned two days before the cabinet meeting on May 31, it carried the instructions to follow the 1979 Local Government Ordinance, they add.

The insiders say the authorities concerned followed the instructions in a very simple manner. They picked copy of the 1979 law, changed its title, replaced local election authority with the word Election Commission of Pakistan (the later is authorised to hold local polls under the 18th Amendment), and reduced the tenure of local councils to four years.

The cabinet approved the “new” draft law on May 31 after chief minister desired three more amendments to it. Under the first amendment the condition of non-party elections would be removed and the decision on the mode of polls left to the Punjab Assembly. The second amendment envisages five per cent quota for youth and the third proposes 33 per cent seats for women.

Sources say the first amendment was introduced after a number of cabinet members warned the chief minister against holding non-party elections to avoid a backlash by public and political parties. One minister reportedly suggested that the word ‘non-party elections’ should at least be deleted from the law even if the PML-N goes for this option. The quota for women and youth was suggested while keeping the PTI factor in mind, a minister revealed.

Sources say as per another direction, all copies of the draft law given to cabinet ministers and officials concerned were collected before they left the meeting to keep secrecy.

There is confusion about the functions the new local councils would perform if elected under the draft bill tabled in the assembly. The sanitation of Lahore is already being managed by a company and the chief minister intends to establish an independent divisional level building control authority, withdrawing another major function of local councils.

The sources said the draft contained no provision for devolution of power.

“It is yet to be seen as to how the government will satisfy the powerless councillors, and how they in turn will be able to appease their voters,” remarked a senior official.