RAWALPINDI: It seems that devolution of power at grassroots level is not on the agenda of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in Punjab as it keeps postponing local government election for one reason or the other.

Despite the Supreme Court`s orders, the provincial government has been dilly-dallying the elections for the last one year.

Political parties in general and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in particular have constantly been crticising the government for not fulfilling its election promises to overcome energy crisis and provide relief to the poverty stricken people. In such a situation, going for the local bodies elections would be suicidal for the PML-N, Arif Abbasi, the PTI member of provincial assembly, said while talking to Dawn.

At present, the city district governments are being run by civil bureaucracy while cantonment boards by civil and military bureaucracy.

In most of the developed countries, local governments take care of civic affairs. Mayors and local councillors are answerable to people directly andthey work for the improvement of civic facilities.

In Pakistan local governments only exist in dictatorial regimes and in democracies rulers try to avoid local bodies elections for one reason or the other.

The PML-N government could not make amendments to the Cantonment Act 1924 to pave the way for holding elections in 53 cantonment boards across the country.

In December 2013, the provincial government announced schedule for local bodies elections which were to be held on January 30, 2014.

The provincial government had completed the process of delimitation of union councils and started receiving nomination papers but the opposition parties raised objections over the manner in which the delimitation carried out by the government as it conducted the whole exercise without consulting the opposition.

Some political parties challenged the exercise in the Supreme Court which put the local bodies elections on hold in January and asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to redo the delimitation of union councils for local government elections and also asked provincial governments to makeamendments to the legislation in this regard.

But the ECP sought time as it was facing shortage of staff for carrying out the delimitation exercise again.

Later, it linked the delimitation with census. Again the ball was in the court of the government. It has to hold census in the country, but it was dragging its feet.

The ECP collected a handsome amount under the head of security fee and so far it has failed to refund to the candidates.

In Rawalpindi district alone, more than 8,323 candidates submitted their nomination papers for two municipal corporations and five municipal committees in Rawalpindi district.

In each union council, more than four panels filed their nominations with security fees. Chairman and vice chairman being one group in each union council submitted Rs5,000 security fee, general councillor and youth, labour, minority and woman members Rs2,000 each.

According to Punjab Local Government Act 2013, each union council in Rawalpindi and Murree tehsils had been divided into six wards for direct election of (six) members to the union council on the basis of adultfranchise.

The union councils (UCs) consist of a directly elected chairman and vice chairman who would be nominated as joint candidates. In addition, the UCs will have a woman member, peasant member, non-Muslim member and youth councillor who will be elected on reserved seats.

There will be a total of 13 members from each union council. The UC chairpersons from Rawalpindi and Murree will also be members of the respective municipal corporations (Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and Murree Municipal Corporation).

They will then elect two general members, two women, two labour, one youth and one minority councillor for the respective municipal corporation.

The UC chairmen along with the newly-elected councillors will then elect the mayor and deputy mayor of the municipal corporation.

According to the act, the remaining five tehsils of Rawalpindi will be divided into wards where one member will be directly elected from each ward. Kotli Sattian has 11 wards, Kalar Syedan 23, Taxila 22, Gujar Khan 19 and Kahuta 14 wards.

These ward members would then vote at the tehsil level for the mayor ordeputy mayor of the respective municipal committees.

`The millions of rupees of the candidates went to waste due to uncertainty about the elections for local government.

All the democratic countries run the affairs of civic bodies through the local governments but in our country, the civic bodies are being run by the bureaucracy,` said PTI MPA Arif Abbasi.

He claimed that the PML-N government had lost support at grassroots level because of its poor performance in Punjab which was why it was reluctant to go for polls at the district level.

PPP Amir Fida Paracha said the PML-N government did not want to share power with others hence it was not holding the local government elections in Punjab.

He said as a result of the local government people would get their problems solved at their doorsteps.

`But it will bring to an end the supremacy of PML-N`s MNAs and MPAs in urban and rural areas,` he said.

`Last year, the PML-N announced its decision to hold the elections on the pressure of the Supreme Court but after the retirement Chief Justicedeputy mayor of the respective municipal committees.

`The millions of rupees of the candidates went to waste due to uncertainty about the elections for local government.

All the democratic countries run the affairs of civic bodies through the local governments but in our country, the civic bodies are being run by the bureaucracy,` said PTI MPA Arif Abbasi.

He claimed that the PML-N government had lost support at grassroots level because of its poor performance in Punjab which was why it was reluctant to go for polls at the district level.

PPP Amir Fida Paracha said the PML-N government did not want to share power with others hence it was not holding the local government elections in Punjab.

He said as a result of the local government people would get their problems solved at their doorsteps.

`But it will bring to an end the supremacy of PML-N`s MNAs and MPAs in urban and rural areas,` he said.

`Last year, the PML-N announced its decision to hold the elections on the pressure of the Supreme Court but after the retirement Chief JusticeIftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, it backtracked,` he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader Malik Azam said that JI wanted local government elections in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to be held in fair and free manner.

He said the people had to face problem in getting their issues solved as the civic bodies run by bureaucracy hardlypaid any attentiontotheirproblems.

`The government is not afraid of local bodies elections but it wants proper delimitation of constituencies, which is not possible without census, PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi told Dawn.

He said the political parties which were ruling in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too failed to hold elections in their respective provinces but l
He said the PML-N government wanted to devolve power at grassroots level but in proper way after completing all the requirements. He said the PML-N would also defeat opposition parties in local government on the basis of his performances as it had launched billions of rupees projects for the welfare of the people.