LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Law,Parliamentary Affairs and Local Government Muhammad Basharat Raja Wednesday said that after getting the nod of Prime Minister Imran Khan, draft of new local bodies system would be presented in the upcoming session of the Punjab Assembly.
Addressing a press conference along-with Minister for Trade and Investment Mian Aslam Iqbal and Spokesman to the Chief Minister Shehbaz Gill here at 90 Shahra-e-Quaid-e-Azam,he said that objective of empowering people would be achieved by transferring the powers to grassroots level under the new local bodies system.
He said that the new system was expected to be enforced before the budget session, however, the elections for the local bodies would be held within a year.
The vision and guidance of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was followed in preparing the draft, he said. The minister said the law would transfer financial resources directly to the public representatives who would be empowered to use them according to needs and demands of their areas. He said that new local bodies system would ensure transparency, accountability and sustainable development across the province and a two-tier administrative infrastructure would be introduced in it.
At the rural level, he said that Tehsil Councils and Panchayat will be replaced with the existing District Council and Union Councils while Neighborhood Council could be the lowest tier of local bodies unit in the urban areas. Similarly, Metropolitan Corporations and Municipal Corporations will perform at divisional and tehsil levels.
He said that 22,000 Panchayat would replace 3,100 Union Councils in the new system and added that this would broaden the scope of public representation. Funds to the tune of Rs 40 billion would be directly transferred to them, the minister said and added that public representatives belonging to minorities would also get an opportunity to perform as the head of local bodies in areas where they were in majority.
He said that elections of Panchayat and Neighborhood Council would be held on a non-party basis while the local bodies' elections will be direct and party-based.
He said that staff of local bodies system would be trained in the interim period so that they could run the new system in an efficient manner. He said the under the new system, representatives would also have the authority to visit local police station, hospital and schools in order to have a check on facilities being provided there.
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