Local bodies elections in cantonment areas: Defence Ministry sends draft bill for vetting

Ministry of Defence has sent a draft bill with proposed amendments to the Law Ministry to hold local bodies elections in all the cantonment boards for vetting.
According to sources, local bodies election can not be held without the approval of a legal framework through an ordinance or act of Parliament.
"The Law Ministry has vetted the draft recommendations which will be sent to the Prime Minister for approval," an official of ECP said.
He further said that the Prime Minister has the prerogative to send the proposed draft amendments to the President for promulgation of an ordinance or take approval from the parliament.
The local bodies elections were held in the cantonments under Local Government Act 1924 before Musharraf's regime. However, during Musharraf's years in power several amendments were made to the Local Government Act 1924, especially in cantonment boards, through the promulgation of ordinances in 2000 and 2002.
Local bodies elections have not been held in cantonments since 1999, the official said adding that in the draft, Defence Ministry proposes to replace President with Election Commission of Pakistan. He said that the Supreme Court had already said in its ruling that it was the responsibility of the ECP under Article-140A (2) to hold elections in cantonment boards.
He said that for the first time it was also proposed to give representation to a woman in each cantonment board.
The British had established cantonment boards in 1924 stipulating that there would be civilian representatives, but that has not been the practice in this country since 1999.
"There are 43 cantonments boards in the country, of which 10 are in class-1, 8 in class-2 and 25 are in class-3," he said.
The provinces have not yet prepared any legal framework for holding local bodies elections, he said.
The Supreme Court in its ruling on July 3 directed the provincial governments to complete their legal formalities by mid August including legislation and delimitation of constituencies, so that the ECP could be in a position to hold the polls on September 15. But sources said that local bodies elections can not be held before 8 to 10 months.
The source further revealed that the ECP had written letters to the provincial governments in which it sought a legal framework and rules of the game for holding local elections. But the provincial governments have not yet passed any legislation from their assemblies for holding elections.
Former Secretary ECP Hassan Mohammad said that provincial governments had always avoided holding local bodies elections because they did not want to transfer their powers to grass root level. He said that after 2008, the provincial governments appointed local administrators to run the system at grass root level.
Hassan also stated that before 2002, local bodies elections were held under the provincial governments but in 2002 subsequent to the passage of legislation responsibility for holding local elections was given to the ECP.