By Asim Shahzad
LAHORE, October 31 — Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan has demanded constitutional protection for the Local Government Act and expressed his support for the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment aimed at securing it.
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Talking to the media in the Punjab Assembly, the Speaker said that the resolution passed to protect the tenure of district governments in Punjab recommends a new constitutional amendment, for which both the National Assembly and the Senate should play their full role. He reaffirmed that if the 27th Constitutional Amendment is introduced for this purpose, he will fully endorse it.
Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan noted that functional local governments have been largely absent in the country for the past fifty years. He expressed hope that all major political parties — including the PML-N, PPP, and PTI — will support the amendment. He added that the “state’s development pact” has been weakened due to the absence of district governments, and that provincial administrations have repeatedly dissolved them in the past due to the lack of a strong legal framework.
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The Speaker also praised the government’s initiatives for scholars and urged that Pakistan should learn from models adopted in Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. Commenting on the recent operation against a religious group, he stressed that maintaining law and order is the state’s responsibility and must be ensured at all costs.
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