*LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar ratified the Punjab LocalGovernment Bill, 2019 on Saturday.*
Speaking on the occasion, he said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ledprovincial government is fulfilling the promise it had to the people todevolve powers to the lower-tiers of administration.
“We are empowering the public in line with vision of Prime Minister ImranKhan” Sarwar said, adding local government representatives will now enjoypowers in true sense.
He said serving the masses is a focal point of the PTI manifesto.
The Punjab Assembly had earlier on Tuesday passed two Bills to replace theexisting local bodies with a new local government system amid protest byopposition parties, particularly the PML-N.
The provincial legislature passed the Punjab Local Government Bill, 2019and the Punjab Villages Panchayats and Neighborhood Councils Bill, 2019.
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The Punjab government plans to hold elections for the new local bodieswithin one year.
According to the new local government system, the village council andmohalla council would be elected through non-party election system, whileelection would be held on a party basis at tehsil and municipal level.
There will be a system of tehsil and village councils under the Act as thedistrict and union council system would cease to have effect following theapproval of the bill.