Amendment needed in Constitution

ISLAMABAD - Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will have no role in conducting Local Bodies (LB) elections in the country unless the Federal Government makes amendments in 1973 Constitution, sources informed TheNation on Friday.
The sources disclosed that the ECP, which had conducted two LG elections in the light of Local Government Ordinance 2001, could no more conduct LG polls after the lapse of the Ordinance on December 31, 2009 leaving the provinces in precarious state to evolve a uniformed mechanism for the LG polls.
Informed sources were of the view that since LG was a provincial subject, therefore the provincial governments were at liberty to hold the LG elections in any manner best suited to them. Prior to enactment of 2001 Local Governments Ordinance, the provincial governments used to conduct the LG elections through Provincial Elections Authority (PEA).
Former chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), Daniyal Aziz, opined that the steps being taken by the provincial governments with regard to fate of LG system were unconstitutional.
He also viewed the Punjab governments legislation to create PEA to conduct LG polls would tantamount to reversion to same corrupt old system in which the civil bureaucracy played the key role in deciding fate of the polls. When asked about the fate of NRB, he said the Government could best answer this question.
However, Federal Minister for Local Government & Rural Development, Justice (Retd) Abdul Razzaq while commenting over the future of the NRB said since it was neither a ministry/division nor an attached department, therefore its function was over.
NRB was created just through a notification and had no constitutional protection, the Minister said, adding NRBs functions came to an end after the resignation of its last chairman Dr Asim Hussain.
He maintained that Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development in addition to provincial governments was the sole constitutional channel to monitor and improve functioning of the LGs. The Federal Government provides funds to the LGs, he noted.
In a related development, it was reliably learnt that the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Reforms headed by Senator Mian Raza Rabbani was actively working on proposal to evolve a uniform mechanism for conducting the LG polls in the provinces by empowering ECP.
The Committee is actively working on proposal to recommend amendments in the Articles 32 and 140 in a bid to involve ECP in conducting LG elections in the provinces, informed sources disclosed.