LG heads to be in place early next month

Islamabad

The mayors and chairmen of local governments in Punjab and Sindh will be finally in place early next month after a long time with Law Minister Rana Sanaullah saying that merit would be strictly observed in picking up the heads of the local councils.

“We have amended the law to hold election to reserved seats on the basis of proportional representation (PR),” he told The News. “But the law has been challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC), which will hold hearing on February 3. If no stay was granted, the indirect election will be organised as scheduled. However, if it was issued, the government will look for other options.”

The minister said that the Punjab government told the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that the election to the special seats can’t be held on ‘non-party basis’ under the present law as the party-based local polls were organised.

He explained that there was a practical problem in holding the ‘party-less’ poll in which the voters (elected councillors) were going to be totally confused while exercising their right. All the candidates nominated by a political party were to be allotted its symbol showing their association with their party.

Therefore, Rana Sanaullah said, the law was changed introducing the PR system. Under it, every party will get the reserved seats as per its numerical strength in the local councils as is done in filling up the special seats in the national and provincial assemblies.

An ECP official told The News that under the existing law, it was not possible to allow political parties to allocate their symbols to their candidates due to the confusion that the voters are likely to face during voting.

He said a way out had been proposed by the ECP to the Sindh government to avoid this uncertainty. According to this option, the ECP would issue different election symbols but not the political parties’ symbols to the candidates nominated by them. Thus, the indirect election will remain party-based.

The official said that while the Punjab government has altered the law, the Sindh administration has not so far responded to the ECP proposal that does not involve changing the legislation.

As per the schedule, the election for the reserved seats in Punjab and Sindh will be held on February 12, 14 and 16. Thus, it has also been scattered like the direct local elections.

After that, the ECP official said, formal notifications of those elected on reserved seats would be issued. Subsequently, the elected councillors will take oath to be followed by the election of the mayors and chairmen of local governments.

Rana Sanaullah said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif would decide about the mayors of municipal corporations and chairmen of the district councils and town committees after taking inputs from the party lawmakers of their respective areas.

He hoped this would be a smooth process as merit would be observed in selecting the mayors and chairmen. Until now the PML-N has kept their names close to its chest. Only its prospective mayor for Lahore is known but nothing is clear about dozens of its preferences in thirty-six districts of Punjab where it swept the local elections.

Besides the chairmen of the district councils, the PML-N will get its representatives elected as the chiefs of a large number of municipal corporations and committees. It has not even quietly hinted to its final selectees for the berths of mayors and chairmen. In almost all districts even the most suitable elected people, who qualify to head the local governments, are on edge as they have got no nod from their top party leadership.