The NEWS
August 13, 2009

Fate of LG Still Hange in Balance
By Babar Dogar

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has not yet sent summary pertaining to the fate of local governments to the President office till Wednesday, the News has learnt.

The fate of local governments is still in limbo, as all the four provinces failed to evolve consensus on these, a prerequisite condition set by the President House before giving it a final nod.

Sources from the President Secretariat said they had not yet received any summary from the PM Secretariat on local governments. Nevertheless, the have made it clear that president Asif Zardari had already conveyed to the premier for evolving consensus among all the four provinces on the fate of local governments before sending him any summary in this regard. Moreover, the prime minister has also been conveyed to get the consensus summary on local governments vetted from the law and parliamentary affairs department before moving it to him. Insiders stated that the president had made it clear upon the PM that he would not sign any summary which would contain divergent points of views of different provincial governments regarding the future of district government system.

Insiders stated it would be an uphill task for the premier to evolve consensus among all the four provinces on local government system because Sindh and Balochistan governments were having different points of views compared to Punjab and NWFP.

It is further learnt that PM wanted the president to devolve the subject of district governments to the provinces so that the provincial governments could make amendments in it according to their varying environments and circumstances. Insiders said Punjab and NWFP had almost consensus on LGs, which wanted to withdraw the administrative powers or nazims and restrict their authority to development side. Nevertheless, Sindh and Balochistan are having varying views, as they want to continue the prevailing system. The MQM is also in favor of current local government system and has been opposing any change in it. The sources from President Secretariat would not entertain any summary on local government if not contained consensus opinion of all the provinces on local governments. Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Labour Minister Khursheed Ali Shah on private TV Channels have claimed that they wanted to retain the current local government system in Sindh.

DAWN
August 13, 2009

Local Government System
NWFP Prefers Zia Over Musharraf
By Mohammad Ali Khan

The NWFP government has decided to revive the local government system given by Gen Ziaul Haq in 1979 in place of the one that the last dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf introduced in 2001.

An official confirmed to Dawn here on Wednesday that everything was ready to reintroduce municipal corporations and district councils of the 1980s and the authorities were just awaiting the president’s assent to dismantle the system exiting under the Local Government Ordinance of 2001.

A draft Local Government Act prepared by the NWFP government is already lying with the president for endorsement. The draft law proposes drastically clipping the powers of elected representatives and strengthening the bureaucracy.

As per the draft law, the official said, rural and urban divide would be revived, as the provincial capital would have two different setups -- municipal corporation and district council.

Both the municipal corporation and district council in Peshawar would comprise general members to be elected through direct election on adult franchise and joint electorate. The number of its members would be notified by the government, the official said.

The municipal corporation, which will comprise urban areas, will be responsible for sanitation of the municipality, birth and death registration, water supply, drainage, private markets, slaughterhouses, education, public safety, municipality planning, building control, streetlights and traffic regulation.

Similarly, the major functions of the district council, consisting of rural areas, would be public works, health, education, agricultural development, economic welfare, drainage, livestock and dairy development, environmental protection and traffic control, the official maintained.

The provincial government, he said, was also working out a strategy for the transitional period, when the existing local bodies would be abolished and administrators appointed, which is expected on Aug 14.

He said since nothing was clear about the future local bodies system yet, the provincial government was also considering different options to handle the local administration during the transitional phase.

Regarding appointment of administrators to replace nazims, the official said one option was to delegate the powers of administrator to the incumbent district coordination officer for the whole district, but it was turned down because some circles believed it would not be possible for a single person to handle the affairs of the district government and four town councils.

The second option currently under review, he said, was to appoint three administrators in Peshawar, as the DCO would be the overall administrator for the district, and there would be an administrator for town councils I and III, which would be part of the proposed municipal corporation.

Similarly, Town II and IV would form the district council and there would a separate administrator for these areas, the official said.

DAWN
July 30, 2009

Councillors Warn Against Rolling Back LG System
By Iftikhar A. Khan

Representatives of local bodies, civil society and bar associations Wednesday warned against a rollback of the Local Government (LG) system, and asked President Asif Ali Zardari not to approve the proposed laws.

In an eight-point resolution unanimously adopted at the United Union Councils’ Convention, they said the proposed laws were in direct conflict with the international norms and standards, such as the Aberdeen Agenda to which Pakistan was a signatory.

They called for further strengthening the local governments by ensuring implementation of the Charter of Democracy and Article 140(A) of the constitution, and immediate conduct of LG polls by authorities independent of the executive.

Participants of the convention vowed to take all necessary legal and democratic steps to preserve and protect the constitution and the political, administrative and financial rights of the elected representatives, especially those with regard to Article 140(A).

They made it clear that they did not accept the appointment of administrators, either in interim fashion or in any other manner in the future, which compromises the autonomy of the democratic local governments, especially through powers of suspension, dissolution, supervision and control, or any other bureaucratic means.

The participants appreciated the spirit of the Charter of Democracy with particular reference to Article 10 which talks of ‘autonomous local governments answerable to their respective assemblies.’

They expressed the determination to work tirelessly for the preservation of provincial autonomy, including the implementation in letter and spirit of Articles 240 and 241 of the Constitution, to ensure that the officers of the provincial services got their due rights.

They also vowed to work for the independence of the judiciary at the district level and below by the full implementation of Article 175(3) of the constitution, thus separating the executive from the judiciary.

Hundreds of participants crossed all barriers to march towards the Constitution Avenue from the Convention Centre, but were ultimately stopped near the Foreign Office where traffic came to a halt after a scuffle between the police and the marchers.

Former National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) chairman Danial Aziz, known as the architect of the LG system, on the occasion said a countrywide campaign would be launched to educate and inform the public about the dangers of reversing the progress towards local, community and democratic empowerment and achieve the ends of fully empowered effective local democracy.

It was announced that a mega event would be organised in Abbottabad on August 3 as part of the campaign.

DAWN
July 29, 2009

Future Local Bodies to Have Fewer Departments
By Muhammad Ali Khan

The new district governments, to be formed under a proposed law drafted by the Frontier government, will have fewer departments than the existing local bodies functioning under the Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

Under the draft Local Government Act, 2009, which has been approved by the provincial cabinet to repeal the LGO, 2001, the new district governments will have six main departments that will dispose of government business at the district level.

Under the 2001 LGO, the district administration comprises 46 devolved departments covering a wide range of services that can be provided at the local level.

Although the local governments’ term was ending in October, an official said, the provincial government still retained a number of departments that were supposed to be devolved at the local level.

He said devolution of so many departments at the local level, as envisaged under the 2001 LGO, had caused overlapping and complexity, affecting service deliver.

According to the draft Local Government Act, 2009, which is almost replica of the local bodies system introduced by Gen Zia-ul-Haq, the district governments will have limited administration because the future local tiers of governance will mainly be confined to municipal and social service delivery.

There will be a district coordination office that will be responsible for general coordination at the district level for planning, integrated development, supervision and review of projects, services, identification of development needs and undertaking relief measures in the event of any kind of calamity.

Similarly, it will oversee matters pertaining to local council establishment, recruitments, promotions and regulation, training, career planning and enforcement of efficiency and discipline rules.

It will also be responsible for formulation, distribution and monitoring of district council budget, financial management, financial sanctions, procurement of stores and goods for district offices etc.

Moreover, it will prepare the annual district development program in coordination with all sections of the district council and coordinate within the district offices and with the provincial government of development issues and monitoring of project implementation cycle at the local level.

Likewise, the district coordination office will also liaison with audit authorities for disposal of audit observations, maintaining district council’s accounts and compiling and disseminating information on performance of the district government.

Education and literacy office will be another major development at the local level, which as per the proposed law will be responsible for provision, management and control of primary and high schools, construction and maintenance of building used as hostels for students, promotion of adult education, universal primary education etc.

Similarly, there will be basic and rural health office in each district that will work for prevention and cure of infectious diseases and immunization campaigns in rural areas.

This office will also be responsible for establishment, maintenance and management of hospitals and rural health centers as well as homoeopathic and other kinds of dispensaries.

As per the proposed law, there will be a community development office at the district level, which will create awareness regarding community welfare issues, facilitate formation of community-based organizations and rehabilitate and train the destitute and handicapped people.

Similarly, planning and implementation of projects for socio-economic development of women, promotion of industrial homes, domestic crafts, cottage trades, holding of fairs and shows, promotion of sports and voluntary regulation of traffic will be some of its major functions.

The public works office, under the proposed law, will construct, maintain, repair and improve roads, bridges, culverts and other infrastructure, design and implement the rural water supply and sanitation works etc.

There will be an agricultural development office in each district that will promote village industry, establish and maintain model agricultural farms, promote agricultural credit and related cottage industry, besides striving for livestock and dairy development.

DAWN
July 29, 2009

Local Government System Abolition Opposed
By Our Staff Correspondent

The local government system may have certain flaws which could be rectified but scrapping the system entirely will be a mistake, participants said at a seminar on Tuesday.

The Pattan Development Organization (PDO) organized the seminar titled “Local governments are the foundation of democracy and abolishing the local governments is the murder of democracy”, which was also attended by representatives of local governments.

Speaking on the occasion, PDO programme manager Muhammad Abdul Saboor said that political governments despite claiming to be the champions of democracy were going to wind up the local government system and hand over powers of people’s elected representatives to bureaucrats.

He said the local government system was introduced to ensure genuine democracy at the grassroots level.

He said that local governments were the only source to provide relief to the masses at their doorstep.

He said the democratically elected government’s decision to bulldoze a representative institution with a massive public mandate resembled the deeds of military dictators in past.

He said that about 100,000 public representatives became part of the local government system across the country. The provision of facilities to internally displaced persons from NWFP at local level was a recent example of the system’s effectiveness, he added.

He said the decision of the government to replace public representatives with bureaucrats was an attack on democracy. It was against the law as well as Charter of Democracy (CoD).

“Both major parties (PPP and PML-N) had agreed under Article 10 of the CoD over the independence and autonomous status of local governments”.

District naib nazim Syed Wajid Ali Shah said the current local government system was protected under the Constitution and the government could not simply abolish it.

The participants wanted the government hold elections instead of appointing administrators, enhance union council’s strength to 21 members including six women; elect tehsil, town and district nazims directly.

Tahira Ashraf, Mian Jamil, Waheed Kamboh, Khalid Nadeem, Naseem Jahan, Muhammad Taqqi also spoke on the occasion.

DAWN
July 22, 2009

Government Urged to Hold LG Polls Soon
By Our Staff Reporter

The government should announce schedule for the party-based local body election instead of postponing them for a year or so, and imposing civil bureaucracy on the people in form of administrators.

This was consensus among participants in a seminar on ‘Future of local governments in Punjab’, organized by the Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) at a local hotel on Tuesday.

MPA Mohsin Leghari said that instead of wrapping up the whole local government system on the pretext of corruption, measures should be adopted to check malpractices in it. “In fact, some elements want concentration of powers that is against the spirit of democracy,” he said.

Chaudhry Fawad said the present LG system was being wrapped up without given an alternative for it. “The present government wants to re-impose the LG system of the 1980s, though it failed to deliver.”

Tariq Sana Bajwa said the LG system served as a nursery for the higher tier of governance.

Ijaz Mehrvi of the PML-N, Azhar Iqbal of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Khawar Mumtaz, Fawad Hassan Chaudhry, Muhammad Tahseen, Jamil Umer, Kishwar Sultana and Salman Abid were among the prominent speakers at the three-session seminar.

They said the local government system should be continued according to the 2001 ordinance with devolution of more powers to the gross-root level.

They were of the view that devolution of power was the only way to resolve masses problems at their doorstep.

They accused federal and provincial level politicians of trying to weaken the local government system.

The speakers said if at all appointment of administrators was inevitable they should be from political circle instead of bureaucracy.

They demanded the government should refrain from decreasing the number of union council member and local government elections be conducted by the Election Commission of Pakistan and not by the provincial authority concerned.

Members of the national and provincial assemblies should restrict themselves to policy-making and legislation, while all other responsibilities should be handed over to local governments, they demanded.

They also apposed revival of offices of commissioner and magistrate.

The NEWS
July 21, 2009

President to Discuss LG System with PM Soon
By Asim Yasin

President Asif Ali Zardari will soon be meeting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to discuss the local government system.

Briefing reporters on the meeting, Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said a summary sent by the premier on the subject of the local government was received by the presidency on Saturday evening.

“The president saw the summary on Monday and decided to discuss the matter with Prime Minister Gilani before taking any decision,” he added. Gilani had sent an advice to Zardari on last Saturday to allow the provinces to process the draft Provincial Governments Acts, 2009, and make amendments to the local government ordinances for the dissolution of the local governments and the appointment of government officers as caretakers to perform the local government functions till provincial governments take a decision on the matter.

The premier sent the advice to the presidency just after coming back to Pakistan after attending the NAM summit, in line with the decision taken at a meeting presided over by him on July 8.

Babar said under Article 268(2) and schedule VI of the Constitution, any amendment to the local government law would be made with the previous permission of President Zardari, accorded after consultation with the premier.

Article 268(2) of the Constitution read: The laws specified in the Sixth Schedule shall not be altered, repealed or amended (expressly or impliedly) without the previous sanction of the president, accorded after consultation with the premier.

Babar said President Zardari believed that it was an important matter, which required consultation under Article 268(2) of the Constitution.

DAWN
July 21, 2009

President may not Approve Punjab’s Proposals
By Zulqernain Tahir

President Asif Ali Zardari may not approve the draft of structural changes proposed by the PML-N in the local government system in Punjab as he wants ‘uniformity’ all over the country, a source in the PPP informed Dawn on Monday.

The Punjab government has submitted the draft proposals to the president for approval.

‘President Zardari has made it clear that he will take all parties on board before finalizing the amendments in the local government system,’ the source said, adding the president did not want a system negating the basic concept of devolution of power at the grass roots level.

‘The PML-N is suggesting a system purely under the provincial government. It should have retained positive things of the local body ordinances of 1979 and 2001 while proposing the new draft,’ he said.

Commenting on the development, PPP leader Navid Chaudhry says the basic concept of devolution will be negated if it is put under the functionaries of a provincial government.

The PPP is also considering forming a committee to listen to the complaints and suggestions of outgoing district nazims. In a letter to Zardari, some 26 nazims across the country have requested him to consider the decision of abolishing local government system from August 1. ‘We hope that you will give our request a serious thought and will adhere to your constitutional duty by opting to play an effective and vibrant role to preserve and safeguard the local government system,’ the letter says.

It further says the local governments are the basic tier of the government and to facilitate the people it should encourage and facilitate the local government representatives.

‘Independent analysis will show that on ground this system has delivered a lot on the grass roots level, especially with regard to infrastructural development. The system is based on concepts of representative government instead of bureaucratic government.’

The letter says the local government system has the constitutional protection under Articles 7, 32 and 140-A. ‘The people have witnessed unprecedented development under the LG system and in the interest of the public at large it should be protected from political victimization.’

The letter is written by District Nazim Nasir Shah (Sukkar), Ms Raheela Magsi (Tandoo Allah Yar, Sindh), Pir Niaz Hussain Shah (Khairpur), Arif Mehr (Shikarpur), Sardar Ghulam Abbas (Chakwal), Abdur Rehman (Lodhran), Farukh Altaf (Jhelum), Maj (retired) Tahir Sadiq (Attock), Tariq Bashir Cheema (Bahawalpur), Raja Javed (Rawalpindi), Imran Naul (Kasur), Madvi Kamaluddin (Pasheen), Abdul Rauf (Turbat), Shehram Khan (Swabi), Sahibzada Tariqullah (Upper Deer), Jamal Nasir (Swat), Omar Khan (Peshawar), Haider Zaman (Abbotabad). Aslam Shaikh (Rohi), Ibrar Shah (Sindh), Amir Ali (Noshero Feroz), Asghar Shah (Lodhran), Navid Rizvi (Kasur), Tariq Sana (Lahore), Ehsanullah (Mardan) and Shaukat Ali (Peshawar).

DAWN
July 21, 2009

Zardari Appears Reluctant to Appoint Administrators
By Syed Irfan Raza

A row between the government and the opposition is likely to erupt because President Asif Ali Zardari has hinted his reluctance in meeting the demand of provinces for the appointment of administrators in place of district nazims.

After reviewing the provinces’ demand, which was referred to the president by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the presidency issued a statement on Monday saying any amendment to the Local Government system required approval by parliament.

According to presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Mr Zardari was of the view that the LG system had constitutional cover under the Sixth Schedule.

The decision may lead to another confrontation with the PML-N as the party has been vocal in calling for wrapping up of LG system and appointment of administrators in place of district nazims.

Analysts believe that the president’s move was aimed at countering the PML-N’s demand for repeal of the 17th Amendment.

Mr Babar said: ‘On the first working day on Monday the president saw the summary initially sent by the PML-N and decided to discuss the matter with the prime minister before taking any decision.’

Mr Zardari has, however, hinted his support to the present LG system.

Mr Babar referred to Article 268(2) of the Constitution. It reads: ‘The laws specified in the Sixth Schedule shall not be altered, repealed or amended {expressly or impliedly} without the previous sanction of the president {accorded after consultation with the prime minister}.’

‘Accordingly the president decided to consult the prime minister on this important issue,’ he said, adding a meeting between the two would be held shortly.

The president’s assent has been sought by the provincial governments for making changes in provincial local government laws.

The provinces have also sought authorisation to dissolve the local governments and appoint administrators till they enact laws on local government.

The spokesman said the president believed that it was an important matter and required consultation under Article 268(2) of the Constitution.