LAHORE, Oct 30: Local government elections in Punjab are unlikely to be held during the ongoing tenure of the Shahbaz Sharif government as his party has decided to leave the task to the successor administration.For the delay the party is offering the excuse of ensuring free and transparent general elections by holding in limbo the local councils which otherwise may influence and rig polls.
Confirming the reports, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah argued that under the amended Constitution interim setups would be introduced only at central and provincial levels, leaving the local councils to freely work under their leaders.
He stressed that local bodies, like in Musharraf regime, could use development schemes and official machinery for certain candidates and, thus, tarnish the transparency and fairness required in the polling process to make results of the electoral exercise acceptable to all.
The Supreme Court had this April asked the provincial governments to honour the command of the Constitution as enshrined in the 18th Amendment and immediately announce schedules for local elections.
The Sindh government defied a Sindh High Court’s subsequent orders of holding the polls within 90 days. The deadline ended in September as the government took the plea that the local government system of 1979 stood restored after the Local Government Ordinance 2001 lapsed, therefore, it had to carry out the exercise of delimitation of constituencies for holding the polls.
The Punjab government is likely to take a similar plea if summoned by court, said an official. The passage of new local government law is also being delayed as the standing committee tasked with vetting the Punjab Local Government Bill 2012 introduced in the provincial assembly in June has met only once without making any progress on the proposed legislation.
The previous local councils were dissolved by then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in July 2009, allowing provinces to run affairs of the bodies by appointing administrators until new polls were held.
But the provinces kept delaying the polls mostly on the plea of poor law and order situation. In Punjab, the system is presently working without legal cover as the six-month extension sought for holding the elections has ended and the government is yet to table a new amendment bill to overcome this legal hitch.