The Punjab Assembly (PA)’s combined opposition on Tuesday called for an All Parties Conference (APC) of all opposition political parties to devise a comprehensive strategy to counter the proposed Punjab Local Government (LG) Bill 2013.
Talking to the media personnel outside the PA, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed opposition leader Mehmood-ur-Rasheed called for an APC of all the opposition parties in the PA in which the parliamentary leaders of the political parties concerned would participate. He said that the combined opposition had decided to launch a province-wide protest on August 23 against the proposed bill. He revealed that opposition parties including the PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) had already rejected the bill as it was against the Constitution.
He said that members of the civil society would also participate in the protests as the bill was against the constitution, democratic norms and the real spirit of the LG system.
Rashid said that the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), had gone back on a promise it made before coming into power, which was to introduce democracy at the lower level.
He said that they had recommended the PTI to take the case to court if the provincial government did not refrain from passing the LG bill and referred to it as the “dictator-era bill”. He added that a delay of one or two months in the elections was bearable but the LG system was against the Constitution and intolerable.
Rashid said that the combined opposition held to the belief that the LG elections must be held on a party basis. “We will protest in and outside the House if the bill is passed without removing our reservations,” he added. In response to a question he said that new LG elections on a non-party basis would be a great injustice to the people of the province and was contrary to the Charter of Democracy.
Furthermore, Rashid said that they expected the provincial government to accept their demand of holding elections on party-basis as it was the demand of the province’s people.
Rashid said that under the proposed LG system, all powers would be delegated to the Local Body Commission.
Meanwhile, PPP Parliamentary Leader Qazi Ahmed Saeed said that the LG bill was against the constitution and the public’s aspirations. Instead of transferring powers to lower level, the Punjab Government wanted to keep all the authority which was unacceptable, he added. He said that the PPP would its raise voice against the LG bill not only in the PA but also outside the assembly. He said that the proposed bill was against the Article 140A of the constitution as no administrative, financial and political authority was given to the local bodies.
