Funds Wasted.

The delay in local bodies elections is not without consequences. The setup has a critical function to perform in a representative democracy. Local governments (LG) ensure grassroots penetration of power decision: making and resources which is necessary to successfully manage affairs at the district tehsil and village levels. As per law at least 30 percent of the provincial development budget is to be handed over to local government to be utilised for various schemes continuing and new.

For the province of Khyber: Pakhtunkhwa (KP) that brings the number to Rs 46bn out of which only Rs 3bn were released. The KP finance minister has defended this decision by pointing out that the tenure of local government councils has expired and elections delayed till April 2021. Perhaps it is important to point out here that despite several reminders by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the provincial governments including that of KP failed to cooperate with the ECP and complete preparations for holding timely LG elections. As per the law they were supposed to have taken place within 120 days of the expiry of tenure...

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