New LG system proposals finalised, to be presented to PM

For establishment of a new local governments (LG) system in Punjab, recommendations have been finalized, which will be presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan for final approval.
This was stated by Senior Provincial Minister Abdul Aleem Khan after chairing a high-level meeting here on Tuesday. He said that in the new system, elections of local governments would not take
place on party basis. Village and neighbourhood councils would be elected where, in each council, there would be three elected representatives while three reserved seats would be for youth, women and minorities.
Abdul Aleem Khan said that election of mayor and deputy mayor would be held directly and on party basis, which would be a new and constructive experience. He said that for the
first time in history, the Punjab government would be handing over its development budget to councillors and 30 per cent funds of Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be at the
disposal of the LGs institution.
Senior minister further said that there would be no overlapping and jurisdiction would be very clear for local and district governments. He said that in Punjab 10 to 20 thousand people would be electing their representative and even a councillor would be recommending development schemes and
spending lakhs of rupees for welfare of their areas.
He added that the powers, which were earlier enjoyed by the chief minister, would rest with the mayor of every city now and people’s problems would be solved at local level as per their aspirations. He said that the new LGs setup in Punjab would be one of its own kind on which even political
opponents could not raise a finger. Abdul Aleem Khan said that the Punjab government had
completed its homework in this regard and now deliberations would be presented to the prime minister for final decision.
The meeting was also attended by Secretary Local Bodies Arif Anwar Baloch and senior officers. The meeting was told that preparing recommendations for the new system was not
less than a challenge. For the purpose, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Model and other countries’ systems were discussed and studied. And now the system devised for future would be far
better than the previous ones.