LAHORE: Official quarters in Punjab have, after minutely perusing the Local Government Act 2013, reportedly found an easy mechanism to ensure the victory of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the local government elections which are being considered difficult because of the huge number of seats. The Punjab government had initially provided a section for non-party elections in the local government law but was forced to delete it under direction from the Lahore High Court. The law now does not restrict political parties to contest the election.
However, awarding tickets to over 50,000 candidates in the province is being considered an impossible task by all the major parties because of the lack of political network at the grassroots level.
Even the majority party, the PML-N, is reportedly finding the task of fielding candidates on all seats like cleaning the Augean stables. However, insiders said yesterday that the mechanism, figured out by the official quarters, might resolve this issue.
There are around 52,000 seats of councillors on general and reserved seats and chairmen and vice-chairmen of union councils (UCs).
But the main attraction of the election will be only the seats of chairmen or the vice-chairmen, both for the prospective candidates and the political parties.
“The PML-N will most likely back chairmen and vice-chairmen of union councils and the councillors of the municipal committees.
Other political parties which seem to have less string roots or the privilege of running the province may also follow suit,” an insider said. INTERNEWS
