LAHORE, Sept 21: The Punjab government is sticking to its plan of avoiding local elections as there is no progress regarding the fine-tuning of a related law tabled in the Punjab Assembly around four months ago.
Instead, the government is actively seeking passage of an amendment to the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 to gain a legal cover for continuing to run the existing local system through official machinery.
The Punjab government wants to hold local elections under a new system whose law was tabled in the Punjab Assembly around four months ago. The law was referred to a standing committee for consideration in one month.
Official sources told Dawn on Friday the committee had met only once and there was no other progress. There seemed to be no move to have the law cleared from the standing committee. And without this the law could not be adopted by the assembly.
On the contrary, the sources said, the government had tabled an amendment bill in the assembly late last month, seeking a six-month extension in the notification of the date for fresh elections. The move was not meant for holding the elections but to get a legal cover for the existing mechanism of running the local councils through bureaucratic channel.
The government has delayed the elections under the 2001 law more than twice. The latest delay of six months was made through an amendment to the law in February last. This deadline expired last month, also indicating that the administrative machinery is running the local system without any legal cover at the moment.
Sources said the amendment bill was referred to a standing committee which was scheduled to hold its second meeting on Sept 26, showing which law the government was interested in.
Sources said the amendment would grant another six-month life to the existing setup. The amendment bill was likely to be passed by the assembly next month, meaning thereby that the extension would expire in March next year. By that time the general elections would be due and there would be no need left to go for the local elections, sources said.
The delay in the local elections under the new law of the choice of the Punjab government is also hampering the plan of the bureaucracy to have the defunct executive magistracy restored. It is also delaying the plan to do away with the existing Police Order and bring back the police under the bureaucratic control.