Punjab govt prepares draft of new bill to amend local govt act

LAHORE: Punjab government has prepared a draft law to amend the local government act in the province and it will be presented for approval before the provincial assembly, ARY NEWS reported.

The Punjab government will present the bill to the assembly, from where it would be sent to the standing committee for deliberation and after that, it would be tabled before the House for approval within 60 days.

As per the draft of the new law, the commissioners and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will work together for delimitations and deputy commissioners will prepare proposals on setting limits of the constituencies.

After the passage of the bill, the local government would be responsible for preparing its development budget while this government would also be responsible for the beautification of historic places, parks, and other places within its jurisdiction and matters related to NGOs, sports, and district administration.

The local government under this bill would be responsible for assisting the provincial government in disaster-like situations besides also looking after matters related to orphans, differently-abled people, and widows.

The local government will also be responsible for cleanliness within its limits.

It is pertinent to mention here that recently, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) have reached an agreement over new local bodies setup in the province with two of them agreeing to 11 metropolitan corporations.

According to sources privy to discussions between the two sides, a metropolitan corporation will comprise of nine divisional headquarters.

“Gujrat and Sialkot have been added as the new metropolitan corporations after the talks,” they said adding that the other 25 districts of the province will have district councils.