PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday underscored the government’s commitment to preserving the continuity of the local government system through a consensus driven and legally sound roadmap.
Speaking at a consultative meeting at the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar with delegations representing the Local Council Association as well as mayors and tehsil chairmen affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, he told the participants that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker would be asked to constitute a bipartisan committee comprising members from both the treasury and opposition benches.
The committee, he said, would convene within the current week and would
be mandated to arrive at a decision prior to March 15.The proposed committee, he added, would deliberate on transitional arrangements, including the option of maintaining the existing local government structure until the conduct of fresh local government elections, subject to legal and constitutional considerations.
Following the chief minister’s assurances, the Local Council Association called off the planned strike today.
The committee, to be formed under the chairmanship of the Speaker, would also hear the position of nominated members of the Local Council Board to ensure inclusive stakeholder consultation.Provincial Minister for Local Government Meena Khan Afridi and senior officials of the Local Government Department also attended the meeting.
Earlier, the meeting undertook a detailed review of matters arising from the scheduled expiry of the tenure of local government representatives on March 15.Later, a meeting of the association was held under the chairmanship of Himayatullah Mayar to review the outcome of the negotiations and to pay tribute to local representatives for their struggle for restoration of an effective local government system.
Addressing the gathering, Mayor Peshawar Zubair Ali thanked representatives from across the province for their participation and sacrifices for the cause of grassroots governance.Mayar described the talks with the chief minister as positive and expressed hope that the provincial government would undertake urgent legislative and administrative measures before March 15 to resolve pending issues.
He reiterated that regular local government elections were essential for strengthening democracy and said the association was striving for a strong, stable and functional local government system not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but across Pakistan.
