As part of efforts to establish civilian supremacy in the country, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has formed a committee to give an enhanced role to public representatives in local governments in cantonment boards, a media report today said.
Though the Election Commission has announced local body elections in cantonment boards on November 3 this year, the 12-member committee is reviewing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf's 2002 ordinance which gave a station commander, usually a brigadier, all financial and executive powers of a cantonment board being its president.
How many powers of a station commander would be curtailed and how much power the civilian public representatives elected by the voters would get is yet to be known, The News daily reported.
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The report said due to this it was the station commander who called the shots instead of the public representatives because he always had a majority on the board.
The station commander also had the veto power over the board as per Musharraf's ordinance.
Sharif would soon be presented a summary of the draft seeking amendments in the Cantonment Ordinance 2002 in line with Article 140 A of the constitution, the report said.
Empowering the public representatives in cantonment boards is a real test case for Sharif, the report said.