Parliament decides against increasing UCs in Islamabad
Pakistan
Passes Islamabad Local Government (amendment) bill 2022
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Parliament passed the “Islamabad Local Government (amendment) bill 2022” which proposed against increasing the number of union councils (UCs) in the capital among other amendments at a joint session called on Wednesday.
Sources told that the session was boycotted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah moved the bill to the assembly to deliberate on the issues. The bill had, earlier, been passed by both houses of the parliament but when President Arif Alvi was approached for his approval, he returned the bill without assent.
Parliament took up the bill and Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf asked the attendants to vote for or against the amendments. Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad proposed to revoke section 3 and section 4 of the bill which entailed direct elections for mayor and chairman in the capital's LG elections, and increasing the number of union councils (UCs) in Islamabad respectively. The House approved the amendments “unanimously”.
Earlier, the local government (LG) elections fiasco in the capital revealed the differences between the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over the elections. The IHC had ordered the ECP to hold elections on time, however, the ECP postponed the elections following a change in the union councils of the federal capital.
The IHC, later, expressed anger on the ECP's decision of not conducting local government (LG) elections in Islamabad as per the court's orders, inquiring which population explosion compelled the government to instruct the ECP to increase union councils (UCs) in the city.
