Quotas for youth: PML-N’s panacea in a PTI pinch

The newly-proposed legislation to benefit the youth and technocrats in the newly-proposed Punjab Local Government Act, 2012 – currently in the Punjab Assembly – is said to be ‘politically motivated’, and without any provision in the constitution, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The prime mover, sources privy to the development reveal, is the Punjab’s incumbent political dispensation newly-formed strategy to woo the youth and technocrats with an eye on the forthcoming elections. The mouthwatering carrot of the reserved seats is meant to ‘engage’ these two fast emerging voting niches before the elections because these vast urban segments have the potential to swing the elections for the PTI – at the PML-N’s detriment. The beleaguered PPP and its coalition partners in the federal government are currently being hammered by most political opponents and analysts over a brace of politically motivated legislation. By no means is the practice is the exclusive preserve of the PPP. The PML-N too has a history of indulging itself with gay abandon, finding justification in garnering selfish ends even when means are far removed from justified.
Last month Shahbaz Sharif presided over the cabinet meeting, which approved the draft law of the Punjab Local Government Act 2012. The meeting also proposed four-year tenure for the local governments, besides restoring offices of mayor, deputy mayor and chairman replacing the Nazimate introduced by Gen Musharraf. Addressing the cabinet, the high-sounding CM had termed the ‘new’ system more in tune with the modern age, closer to the aspirations of masses and the promotion of democratic process. He further allocated five percent quota for the youth to give “effective” representation to the younger generation in the decision-making process. Special seats have also been reserved for women, minorities, farmers and workers to give “due representation” to all segments of the society. The draft bill also sets an age limit of 21 years to 25 years and a minimum qualification of Master’s degree for the young councilors. Sources in the government expressed their reservations on setting this as the minimum qualification, which was not even required for the country’s superior services. However, the legal experts confided to the scribe that the matter of qualification and age limit is ‘secondary’. The primary issue is that the constitution does not provide for the reserved seats for technocrats and youth, while it ‘backs’ minorities, women and peasant seats in the supreme document. “There is always a rationale in the provisions of the constitution; women, minorities and peasants have been mentioned there, but quota for the youth and technocrats has so space,” said a senior legal expert, seeking anonymity.
The legal experts are of the opinion that even if the Punjab Assembly passes the bill, it will still remain challengeable in courts, which can strike it down. Interestingly again Punjab would be the first province to have a special quota for the youth in local bodies, which according to the critics is an attempt to sneak into the PTI chairman Imran Khan’s overwhelming influence on the youth. The PML-N senator Pervaiz Rasheed however said the government has only decided to present the draft bill in the Punjab Assembly, which has a strong opposition, which will “grill” the bill before passing it, and in the process highlight if anything is against the constitution after which the PA will decide a way out. To a question, Rasheed said the cabinet has just given approval to present the draft bill in the assembly.