Draft of Local Bodies Bill: Punjab PA session will be convened to rectify anomalies: Sarwar

Session of Punjab Assembly will be convened very soon to rectify the anomalies in the draft of Local Bodies (LB) Bill so that these institutions could start working at grass root level for the mitigation of people's problems, said Governor Punjab Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar.

Addressing a function of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) here, he said that the root cause of people's problems was non-functional LB institutions. He said that during the tenure of previous government the elected councilors were not allowed to take oath for one year and even after the oath taking ceremony, they remained deprived of funds.

He told that in new LB system the basic unit will be a village council, which will have 30 percent funds. He said that it is not fair to claim that abrogation of LB law had created problems for the people. He said that under new system the people will get all services at the village council level.

Regarding current account deficit, he said that it was 19-20 billion dollars but government has successfully controlled it but we could not gain political advantage of this big achievement. He said that most of the people are ignorant of the impacts of the current account deficit which have grave consequences on our economy. He told that during last 4 months our current account deficit has decreased from 6 to 1 billion dollars.

He further told that he is working on a project to give representation to the presidents of divisional headquarter chambers in concerned university syndicates. He further told that there should be business centres in every university from where young entrepreneurs could get ideas for new and innovative products. He told that in India, the business community has invested Rs.11 billion on these business centers in one year. "We should also get maximum benefits from our talented and highly qualified youth", he added.

Earlier, President FCCI Rana Sikandar Azam explained some important problems and told that provision of clean drinking water and up-gradation of airport is very important for the future development of this city. He also demanded to link M-4 Motorway with Lahore-Karachi Motorway by constructing a new Interchange at Zail Gujjran. He said that Faisalabad Airport should also be linked with M-4 Motorway which is just 4 kilometers away from the airport. He also handed over his comprehensive written demands to the Governor Punjab and hoped that during his next visit he will give business community good news.