LAHORE
The Punjab Assembly (PA) on Thursday passed the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2010 enabling the Punjab government to delay the local government elections for another 180 days.
The amendments to the bill, which were moved by the opposition, could not be passed but the treasury benches succeeded in passing the bill. Opposition Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Seemal Kamran staged a walkout from the house to express solidarity with the LG representatives.
The first amendment was proposed by MPA Dr Samia Amjad seeking circulation of the bill for attaining public opinion by December 15. She presented strong arguments in favour of the amendment but could not succeed in getting it passed. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the house represented over 85 million people of Punjab due to which an amendment was not required. The second amendment was moved by Seemal Kamran seeking referring of the bill to a select committee. Sanaullah said that the select committee had done its job and there was no need to refer the bill to the select committee. Other amendments moved by opposition MPAs Humaira Awais Shahid and Dr Samia Amjad could not get the support of the house as well. The chair declared that the two proposed amendments moved by the opposition could not be debated upon, as according to rules, already settled matter could not be debated again. According to the statement of objects and reasons, it was necessary to debate on the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 according to Article 140-A of the constitution after passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The Election Authority was not required to conduct the LG elections and according to the constitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would conduct the elections. The 180-day deadline necessary for conducting the LG polls also stood expired after the bill’s passage.
The PA was working on preparing a new legislation for the LG system. For this purpose, an amendment to Section 179-A of the LG Ordinance was required. Amendment to Section 179-A means that the Election Commission would notify a new date for holding the elections within 360 days. The Election Commission would issue notifications regarding by-elections, elections results and resignations of local representatives including nazims or naib nazims. It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab government had delayed the LG elections for six months in February 2010. Afterwards, the assembly’s session was adjourned until today (Friday).
