LAHORE - Semi-democracy will return to cantonment boards’ limits across the country as a result of local government elections to be held on April 25 on 199 general seats in 42 cantonment boards.
The local government polls will be held in the cantonment boards after 17 years, which will bring semi-democracy back there with a mix of elected local members in addition to nominated ones belonging to the defence services.
The data available with The Nation about the number of cantonment boards in the country states that there are 42 cantonment boards and direct elections for local bodies will be held on 199 general seats.
According to senior cantonment board officials, the formula of power sharing between the elected representatives and defence forces’ nominated members in a board says that both sides will have equal number of representatives to form a board of any cantonment.
The cantonment board in the provincial capital comprises two zones of which one is Walton Cantonment Board and the other is Lahore Cantonment Board.
Both the zones have 10 wards in which direct elections for local government will be held while two members each in both the zones will be elected through indirect election on reserved seats, which makes the elected strength of 12 members in each board.
The indirect election for reserved seats for women and minorities will be held after the elections on general seats, while the directly elected members of a board will elect the members for reserved seats through secret ballot.
The Lahore station commander who is president of the cantonment board will nominate 12 members, mostly belonging to the defence forces for each of the cantonment board that finally constitutes boards for the two zones.
Each board consists of 24 members who will elect a vice president and the deciding vote to elect the vice president will be of the cantonment board’s president if the candidates get equal votes.
The secretary of the board is cantonment executive officer. This formula applies to the constitution of all the cantonment boards. A member of the board will hold the office for a term of four years.
A senior Election Commission official, when contacted to get information about the limits of a ward in a cantonment board, said a ward would consist of a village or revenue estate or a census block or adjoining census blocks as determined for purposes of the last preceding census. He added a ward in a cantonment board was like a union council in other parts of the country, a unit for local polls’ constituency.
Cantonment board officials said 20 election symbols will be allocated to the candidates while the polls will be held on non-party basis.
They also said returning officers will consist of executive officers and additional executive officers while additional directors of the cantonment boards will manage the polling exercise with the assistance of the administration machinery, including assistant commissioners, extra-assistant commissioners, deputy directors revenue and sub registrars.
However, the Election Commission Officials said the cantonment board authorities will send the lists of the selected returning officers to them and it will be their prerogative to finalise the polling staff.
The detail of 42 cantonment boards and 199 general seats is as under: Rawalpindi Cantonment Board 10 wards, Chaklala 10, Wah 10, Taxila 2, Murree 2, Attock 2, Sanjwal 2, Kamra 2, Jhelum 2, Mangla 2, Lahore 10, Walton 10, Sargodha 10, Shorkot 5, Gujranwala 10, Kharian 2, Sialkot 5, Okara 5, Multan 10, Bahawalpur 3, Pano Aqil 2, Hyderabad 10, Faisalabad 10, Manora 2, Clifton 10, Karachi, 5, Malir 3, Korangi Creek 2, Peshawar 5, Nowshera 4, Risalpur 3, Cherat 2, Mardan 2, Kohat 3, Bannu 2, DI Khan 2, Abbotabad 5, Havelian 2, Murree Gallis 2, Zhob 2, Loralai 2 and Quetta 5.
According to the schedule, candidates for cantonment boards started getting nomination papers on March 23. The nomination papers will be filed from March 29 to 31. Scrutiny of the papers will be held from April 2 to 4.
Appeals will be filed on April 6 and disposed of on April 9. Nomination papers will be allowed to be withdrawn till April 10 and final list will be published on April 11. The polling will be held on April 25 and the results will be announced on April 28.