THE government introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Bill 2013 in the provincial assembly on Oct 7. The bill was referred to a select committee of the assembly for discussion. The proposed law is aimed at repealing the local government law introduced by previous Awami National Party-led provincial government. Called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2012 it had replaced Pervez Musharraf era Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Ordinance 2001. The proposed law now provides for three-tier local government system, including district, tehsil and village or neighborhood councils. It proposes elections to the district and tehsil councils be held on party basis and to village and neighborhood councils on nonparty basis. It also includes reserved seats for women, non-Muslims, youth, peasants and workers. The mechanism provided for filling the reserved seats have generated a de-bate especially among members of minority communities as in the proposed law they have been placed at the mercy of political parties in district and tehsil councils and no independent person could contest polls on reserved seats. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Bill 2013 there will be 342 seats reserved for women in 25 district councils, whereas 61 seats each would be reserved for nonMuslims, youth and peasants and workers. Similarly, in around 73 tehsil councils across the province there will be 349 seats reserved for women, and 88 seats each reserved for non-Muslims, peasants and workers, and youth. The proposed law provides for 138 seats in Peshawar City District, including 92 general seats, 31 reserved for women, and five each reserved for nonMuslims, youth and peasants and workers. The mechanism for filling reserved seats in the district andtehsil councils is almost identical to that of filling reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies. Section 74 (4) of the proposed law states: `Members to fill seats reserved for women, peasants and workers, youth and nonMuslims in the tehsil council and district council shall be elected through proportional representa-tion system of political parties` list of candidates onthe basis ofthe total number of general seats secured by each political party in the respective local council. Like in general elections when politicalparties suomit nsts or canaiaates against reserved seats for women and minorities for the National and provincial assemblies, the proposed law also provides for the provision of lists of candidates for the reserved seats in the district and tehsil councils. `This system is flawed as members from minority communities would be elected not on the basisof their performance, but their allegiance to a political party. In such case real representatives of different communities could not be elected unless they were nominated by a political party in the list of candidates,` said Haroon Sarab Diyal, chairman of All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement.He said that the government should have consulted activists striving for minority rights for evolving the mechanism for filling these reserved seats. `If the proposed mechanism is adopted it will result inmembers of minority communities not caring for their people and instead they would be toeing the party line,` he added. Mr Diyal said that they had also opposed the mechanism provided for filling reserved seats in National and provincial assemblies as it had resulted in election of those elements who had never worked for minorities. He sugges-ted that the reserved seats in district and tehsil councils should be filled through direct elections as in that case the voters of minority communities would be free to elect a person of their choice. In the local government system of 2001 the electoral college for electing councillors on reserved seats in the district council included all the members of the entire union councils in that district. Similarly, for the tehsil or town council the electoral college included all members of the entire union councils in that particular tehsil or town. Even that mechanism was flawed but still every member of a community was free to contest election. In that law specific number of reserved seats was not given and instead it was provided that the number of women reserved seats in a district should be 33 per cent of the number of union councils in that district and the reserved seats for minorities were five per cent of the union councils in that district. A former district councillor onminority seats, Gulshan Yousaf, who is associated with Awami National Party, defended the proposed mechanism stating that if a member of a minority community was elected on independent basis he could not exercise any influence in the elected body unless he had the support of a political party. He said that as elections would be held on joint electorate basis, therefore, a political party would definitely include such persons in the list of candidates who are popular among his community members. `If the proposed mechanism is approved by the assembly it would leave the minority communities at the mercy of political parties and even if a party is not popular among the non-Muslims and it wins general seats then its selected members will be elected on reserved seats,` Mr Diyal said. He said that the provincial government should make the system more participatory for the nonMuslims by filling the reserved seats through direct polls.