File photo: The Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly |
The bill was presented in the
assembly a couple of days earlier for lawmakers to vet and suggest amendments.
However, the bill sailed smoothly as Law Minister Ali Madad Sher read out the
document in the session chaired by Speaker Wazir Baig. “It’s a memorable
occasion. The assembly has enacted yet another law,” said Sher after the bill
was passed.
Gilgit-Baltistan Police Institute
(GBPI), a not-for-profit organisation, had drafted the bill after holding a
series of consultations with stakeholders in G-B and Islamabad.
“It is a turning point in G-B’s
history as issues being faced by its residents would now be resolved at the
grass-roots level on priority basis,” said GBPI Director Programmes Altaf
Hussain while speaking to The Express Tribune.
Hussain said the urban areas of G-B
(Gilgit and Skardu) have been named city metropolitan corporations under the
law, to be headed by a mayor and deputy mayor. District councils will be called
district governments, which will be headed by district nazims and deputy
nazims.
Under the new law, a financial
commission, comprising the leader of the opposition, finance minister and local
government minister, will be formed to supervise financial matters of local
bodies.
As the assembly session progressed,
the speaker ordered a judicial enquiry into the sectarian strife which gripped
Ghanche district of Baltistan recently. The Sofia and Imamia schools of thought
of the Noorbakhshiya sect clashed on August 3, leaving many people injured in
the otherwise peaceful region.
The speaker’s call for a judicial
enquiry came after lawmakers from Ghanche district, Amina Ansari and Sultan
Ali, accused Chief Minister Mehdi Shah of having a hand in the violence. “CM is
backing the men involved in the violence and has also tampered with the FIR to
save his men,” alleged Ali.
Another senior lawmaker, Fida
Nashad, also slated the chief minister, saying tampering with an FIR is a crime
that leads to punishment.
Meanwhile, the house adopted a
resolution tabled by lawmaker Mutabiat Shah demanding measures to prevent
possible infiltration of terrorists in Hunza-Nagar and Ghizer districts as both
are linked to the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan. Moreover, it called for the
permanent deployment of two wings of Gilgit Scouts on the Karakoram Highway and
in Ghizer Valley to ensure security. “There are threats of terrorism in both
places so it would be wise to take arrangements timely,” read the text of the
resolution.
Express Tribune
Express Tribune
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