Nazim to be elected through direct election: next LB elections on party basis proposed

The next local bodies' elections should be held on party basis and the District Nazims should be elected through direct elections.
These amendments were unanimously proposed in a high level meeting presided over by Provincial Minister for Law and Local Government, Muhammad Basharat Raja, here on Sunday.
It may be recalled that earlier, during a meeting of Chief Ministers of the four provinces held under the chairmanship of President General Pervez Musharraf, it was decided that provincial government in mutual consultation with Nazims and experts should unanimously propose amendments in the local government ordinance in order to further improve and strengthen the district government system.
The committee set up under the chairmanship of Minister for Local Government Punjab presented a model draft of the proposals while the other provinces submitted their amendments.
Various proposals were also presented in the meeting for better co-ordination between district government and tehsil councils besides mobilisation of resources for the local bodies' institutions for their economic stability.
The meeting noted that a number of problems are arising due to devolution of powers in revenue and taxation departments and the issue should be resolved. It was further decided that working relationship between district and provincial governments should be further improved.
It was decided that the next meeting of the concerned officers of all provinces for finalising the draft of unanimous amendments would be held on July 1, 2004 in Islamabad.
Chief Secretary Punjab, Kamran Rasool, Chief Secretary NWFP, Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, Chief Secretary Sindh, Aslam Khan Sanjrani, Secretaries Local Government of Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP and Punjab, Secretary Finance Punjab, Salman Siddique and other concerned officers were present.