Lord mayors for top five cities in Punjab

The new municipal system in Punjab will have five metropolitan corporations – Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Multan – while their heads will be called Lord Mayors.

In cities, the neighbourhood councils would be made in accordance with the population: Lahore will have 280 neighbourhood councils for its 10mn population, Faisalabad will have 170 for its 3mn population, both Gujranwala and Rawalpindi will have 11 councils, for their 2mn populations, and Multan will have 90 councils for its 1.8mn people.

The office of councillor has been abolished.

The Union Councils (UCs) in cities and villages will be called neighbourhood and panchayat councils respectively.

A neighbourhood council responsible for populations of between 20,000 and 45,000 would have five general councillors, two women councillors, and a minority councillor.

The councils for populations of between 13,000 and 20,000 would have four councillors, one woman councillor and a minority councillor.

The councils for populations of between 6,000 and 13,000 would have three general councillors, a lady and minority councillor.

The councils for populations of less than 6,000 will have two general councillors, one woman councillor and one minority councillor.

In villages, all panchayat councils will have a woman and minority councillor; those with populations of between 8,000 and 15,000 will have four general councillors, those with populations of between 2,000 and 8,000 will have three general councillors, while councils with less than 2,000 people will have two general councillors.

Further, the elections of councils will be held on a non-political basis, and the candidate with the most votes will become the head of the council.

Under the new system, a census will be conducted within six months, after which new delimitations would be done by administrative officers without any role of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The small municipal councils and committees will have neighbourhood councils commensurate to their population.

Under this scheme, the corporations with population between 800,000 and 900,000 will be set up with 45 neighbourhood councils, those with between 600,000 and 700,000 people will have 35 councils, those with between 500,000 and 600,000 will have 30 councils, and those with between 400,000 and 500,000 with 25 councils.

The municipal committees will follow the same scheme: those with between 300,000 and 400,000 population will get 20 neighbourhood councils, those with between 200,000 and 300,000 will get 15 councils, those with between 100,000 and 200,000 population will get 10 councils, and those with between 50,000 and 100,000 population will get eight councils.

Further, for those with between 30,000 and 50,000 people will have six councils, and populations of less than 30,000, there would be five councils.

The special seats in these councils will be according to their schedule.

The council chairman would be a minority member, if those populations are comprised of minorities.

Every voter will cast three votes, one each for a general, a woman, and a minority councillor.