LAHORE The provincial government is suggesting a 'sunset clause' in the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001 to have legal authority to postpone the next local bodies elections, dissolve the local governments and appoint officials as their administrators.

According to official sources, the proposed amendment to the PLGO 2001 and a draft law on the new local government system of Punjab's choice have been finalised. They will be sent to the federal government after its approval by the provincial cabinet, reportedly meeting on Friday morning for the purpose, the sources add.

'We are sending the amendment and the draft of the new law to the federal government because we have information that the federal government has not only announced to postpone the elections but also agreed to allow the provinces have a new local government system of their own choice,' the sources told Dawn here on Thursday.

Afterwards, they said, proposals regarding amendments to the CrPC would also be sent to the federal government so as to revive the defunct office of district magistrate and executive magistracy.

The officials termed Section 179-A of the PLGO 2001 a 'sunset clause' which was inserted in the ordinance in 2005 to allow the provincial governments to appoint caretakers till the completion of local elections.

The clause was deemed to be omitted after the holding of the elections in 2005. Now, the Punjab government was again suggesting the federal government to allow the provinces to insert the same clause in the PLGO 2001 to have the next local elections postponed, local councils dissolved and administrators appointed, the officials said.

They said the provinces could insert the clause in the PLGO 2001 afresh, either through the assembly or re-activate (that of the 2005) through a gazette notification. 'There are more chances of the government following the latter course here in Punjab,' they claimed Explaining the sunset clause, the officials said all laws remain enacted till their formal repeal, but the sunset laws or clauses were omitted after a certain period of time. In Britain, the parliament had made an anti-terrorism law around three years ago, but it made it a sunset law for one year after protesters denounced it for undermining basic human rights, they added.

The officials said the proposed amendment, after approval by the cabinet, would be sent to the federal local government ministry. The ministry would then send it to the president, through the prime minister, who could allow the provinces to amend the law. The routine was a requirement under Article 268 (2) of the Constitution under which provinces could not amend the LGO 2001 without the prior approval of the president till December 31, 2009.

They said the province was also sending a draft bill of the new local government system of its choice to the federal government because it had received the information that the president would also allow this before the expiry of the constitutional protection to the existing PLGO 2001.

Basically, the new proposed law was a copy of the Local Government Ordinance 1979 with certain new things borrowed from the existing ordinance.

The new law would be enacted through the Punjab Assembly and its main features included separation of the rural and urban areas of cities, re-introduction of municipal corporations and zila councils, giving only municipal functions to them and returning administrative powers to the official machinery to be headed either by a deputy commissioner or the DCO.

When asked what the provincial government would do if the president did not allow it to enact the new law before the expiry of the constitutional protection to the existing law on December 31, the officials said in that case 'we will use it next year.'