Dear Participants,
The upcoming election in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) are just around the corner, while the debate on the revival of Local Bodies (LB) in AJK got new impetus when all the provinces of Pakistan successfully conducted Local Bodies Elections in recent years. The last LB polls were held in AJK in 1991 and the elected representatives of Local Bodies kept working until 1996.
Since then, instead of holding local bodies’ elections as required by the law, administrators and Chairmen of the development authorities were appointed invariably by the successive governments on political basis to run local councils. It diminishes transparent functioning and also mitigates the system of accountability of the Government and its institutions. On 6th March 2015, after a long judicial battle, the AJK High Court directed the Government to hold Local Bodies elections within the next five months, but Government did not pay heed on it.
Why Discussion Now?
It is the right time to discuss this issue as political parties are framing their polices in the context of upcoming general elections and a strong pressure from civil society should be exerted to not only to include LB polls in their party manifestos but also to make a firm public pledge of holding LB polls within first six months, if any of them get a chance to establish government.
Ershad Mahmud
Executive Director
0300 5132375
Dr. Waqas Ali
Director Programmes
0333 5752717
