After the 18th amendment in constitution of 1973 Local Government system is now a provincial matter. According to Article 140-A of constitution of Pakistan, each province shall, by law establish local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibilities to elected representatives of local government. In the past all elections for local bodies were held under the Military rule on different local government models.
After May 11, general election Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has emerged as the largest political party in KPK province and is in a position to form the government there. It was the election slogan and commitment of PTI that if PTI comes to power it will hold local government elections and implement its ‘Rural Governance’ vision for empowering the community, by which powers will be given to people at local level. Public funds shall be in the hands of the public elected representative. PTI's political will is to decentralize the power at village level.
In the past our political elite, members of assemblies’ have put emphasis's on centralized approach, just so that they could misappropriate the development funds for their constituencies, but now we hope that PTI government in KPK, under the constitutional obligation, will hold the election of local government to strengthen democratic practices at grass root level, as early as possible.
KAMRAN AHMAD,
Abbottabad, May 20.