Lahore

After certain amendments to the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2010, the Punjab government has further delayed the local government polls by 360 days and abolished the office of the Punjab Election Authority.

The opposition benches also moved some amendments to the Bill but the treasury benches rejected them with majority vote.

The Bill was tabled by Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah Khan. The office of the Punjab Election Authority was abolished with the objective of bringing the provision of Punjab Local Government (amendment) Bill 2010 in conformity with Article 140-A of the Constitution.

Under the 18th amendment in the Constitution, the authority of conducting local government polls has been delegated to the Election Commission of Pakistan, instead of the Provincial Election Authority. The Punjab government had already abolished the office of the Punjab Election Authority a few months back.

Under the Amendment, the words ‘Election Authority’ was also replaced with ‘Election Commission’ and the Election Commission shall notify every election, by-election and result of the election or by-election and resignation, removal or recall of a member, nazim or naib nazim.

The second amendment was made to section 179-A of the LG bill which states that the government shall notify a date for holding of election of the local governments to the Election Commission, as soon as may be but not later than three hundred and sixty days. The Punjab government was successful in getting the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2010 passed to give legal justification for the delay in holding of the local body elections for the period of another 180 days.

The amendments moved by the opposition members were lost with the majority of votes and the bill finally was passed with the big yes of the treasury members.

Opposition member Seemal Kamran, after the passage of the bill, walked out of the house to register her protest and express

sympathies with local body representatives. After the completion of the agenda, the chair adjourned the house until Friday morning.

