PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa North chapter chief and former provincial minister Inayatullah on Tuesday accused the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of attempting to delay Local Government (LG) elections through proposed amendments to the province’s local government law.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, Inayatullah said the initial draft of the legislation prepared by the provincial government included provisions to strengthen the authority of district nazims and proposed the formation of neighbourhood councils for populations ranging from 5,000 to 15,000.
He said that the amendment in the later draft has raised the required population in case of each neighbourhood council to 30,000, which means that the number of local bodies will reduce greatly. He alleged that in this regard, the number of village councils will fall from 3,335 to 935 and neighbourhood councils from 4,000 to nearly 1,000.
Inayatullah alleged that such legislation can lead to the indefinite postponement of the local government elections.
Moreover, he mentioned that the new bill will mainly favour the influential and rich candidates rather than transferring power and resources to the bottom level of governance. On the basis of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s stance for decentralization, he contended that the bill contradicts their previous stand regarding delegation of power to local bodies.
Furthermore, he accused the ruling political party of avoiding local elections due to fear of public opinion.
He demanded that the provincial government bring back the Local Government Act of 2013 and that Jamaat-e-Islami would consult lawyers and could file a petition in the court regarding this bill.
