LAHORE - Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat has said important legislation would be carried out during the upcoming session of the Punjab Assembly.
Giving pre-session briefing to the media on Saturday, he said that five bills and two ordinances would be presented to the House for approval. Parliamentary Secretary for Law Ali Abbas Shah was also present.
The law minister greeted the newly elected office bearers of PA Press Gallery. He also admired the services and conduct of outgoing office-bearers.
Raja Basharat said that the most important bill titled “Punjab Local Government Bill-2019” would be part of the upcoming legislation. He said that the new LG system was a reflection of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s vision who wanted to see their public empowered and prosperous. He said after approval of new LG Bill-2019 from the PA, the Punjab LG Act 2013 would be repealed. The new system has two tiers i.e. Tehsil Council and Municipal Corporation/Town Committee and Neighborhood Council and Punchayat with abolition of district council and union council of previous system. Each village of Punjab would have independent local body as Punchayat and urban population would have Neighbourhood Council at Mohallah level. First time in the history, the minorities of Punjab would elect own representatives of their respective local bodies. The representatives of Tehsil Councils and Municipal Corporations would be elected through party-based elections while there would be non-party elections for the Punchayat and Neighborhood Councils. The local bodies would receive direct funds of Rs40 billion from the government to identify and execute projects at own.
5 bills to be presented to Punjab Assembly
To a question, Raja Basharat said that Usman Buzdar would be the most successful CM of Punjab. He said that legislation was the constitutional right of government against which any citizen was free to go to the courts. He assured that neither deputy commissioners could interference in the new local bodies nor the status of police would be changed. LBs would be empowered to supervise the education and health sector, he said.