KP Assembly session: Opposition warns govt against curtailing LG reps powers

PESHAWAR: Opposition flayed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government as the recently held local government polls were discussed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday.

Opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani, soon after recitation from the Holy Quran, said on a point of order that the government was trying to deprive the elected public representatives of their powers.

“First the Pakistan PTI leadership applied tactics to delay the local government elections and then attempted holding the polls on non-party basis but after failing to win the elections, now it is trying to transfer all powers to assistant commissioners (ACs) and tehsil municipal officers (TMOs) instead of elected mayors,” he said.

Akram Durrani accused the government of manipulating the elections through administration. He called for taking the opposition into confidence before finalising draft rules for the local councils.

Khushdil Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) supported Akram Durrani’s point and said the draft rules were against Article 140 (A) of the Constitution. Empowering ACs or TMOs to exercise the power of elected people was unconstitutional, he added.

He suggested constituting a committee to frame the rules for local government institutions in the larger interest of the province and democracy. Inayatullah Khan of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) said that empowered local governments were main point of the PTI manifesto and the government’s attempt to transfer elected representatives’ powers to government officers would be a disrespect to the elected institutions.

Sardar Yousaf of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) said that holding direct elections for LGs was a good omen but depriving elected representatives of authority would be an injustice.

The lawmaker asked the government to refer the matter of rules’ framing to a select committee. He also suggested holding the second phase of LG elections in March, saying that most of the remaining districts where elections were to be held were hilly and cold areas. He said ACs and TMOs would exercise only administrative powers, while other powers of elected representatives were not being transferred to them.