By: Zulfiqar Ali (Kashmir Investigation Team)
MUZAFFARABAD: Contrary to the Azad Kashmir High Court decision, the Azad Kashmir Local Government Department has decided to spend Rs 2.6 billion out of the remaining development funds of Rs 3.7 billion for the financial year 2024-2025 through assembly members, while only Rs. 1.6 billion was provided as a grant to 3,000 councilors and local bodies.
This amount will be spent in a short period of one and a half months after the approval of the controversial law in the assembly.
According to a notification issued by the Secretariat of the Local Government and Rural Development Department of Azad Kashmir, Rs 1.59 billion was released to local councilors, while Rs 6.9 million was provided to five municipal corporations.
On April 30, the Azad Kashmir Assembly passed the controversial Local Government and Development Programme Ordinance 2025. Its section 8, sub-section (1) provides for the identification of projects “by the members of the Legislative Assembly (against development funds for members of the Legislative Assembly in the annual development programme), by the elected members of the Local Councils (against local council funds or grants provided by the government to local councillors) and by the local population, rural organisations and distinguished areas (against local council funds or grants provided by the government to local councillors)”.
Under this law, funds will be allocated in the annual development programme for the members of the Legislative Assembly, while the government will provide local council funds or grants as per its discretion.
According to clause (c) of section 12, sub-section 2 of this law, “For such special programmes or development projects as may be identified by the members of the Legislative Assembly, a project committee shall also be constituted under clauses (a) and (b), however, this project committee shall be approved by the concerned DDOs.”
Clause (S) states that “Elected members of local councils may participate in the formation of project committees or local organizations, but they themselves shall not be eligible to be project leaders or chairman committees, nor shall work orders be issued in the name of elected members of local councils.”
It should be noted that for more than three decades, the governments of Azad Kashmir have been spending money on local government development projects through members of the assembly based on a document manual prepared in 1984, in violation of the Local Government Act 1990.
After 31 years, local government elections were held in November-December 2022, but despite this, the local government development budget was being spent through members of the assembly on the basis of the manual. In 2023, local government representatives filed a writ against this in the High Court.
Since the local body elections in 2022, 13,000 projects were included in the local government development program for the financial year 2022-2023, which were identified by the members of the assembly and approved by the Prime Minister himself. This process continued until the High Court’s decision on February 29, 2025.
On February 29, 2025, the High Court said in its decision that according to the law, members of the Legislative Assembly have no connection with local government projects. The court said in its decision that the constitution has no legal status and on this basis, members of the assembly were given the role of identifying local government projects.
The High Court had ruled that 13,000 projects in the Local Government Annual Development Programme 2022-2023 cannot be cancelled for the purpose of starting a new process. However, the court had also held that the process of identifying projects and allocating funds by the members of the assembly on the basis of the manual is against the relevant provisions of the Act, as it has no legal basis.
The court had said in its verdict that under the Interim Constitution of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Act 1974, the Local Government Act 1990 and other relevant laws in force, local councilors have the exclusive power to initiate, implement and complete development projects under the local government and a comprehensive framework has been provided for this purpose.
Therefore, under the Constitution and the said Act, the concerned authorities are bound to allocate and transfer funds for all development projects to the concerned local bodies.
The High Court in its judgment also said that the government should strictly implement the Local Government Act of 1990, and development funds should be spent only through elected local government representatives. The court had restrained the government from allocating or releasing funds to the members of the assembly for local government development projects.
But even before this judgment, the Azad Kashmir government had spent about Rs. 01 billion on local government projects through the members of the assembly on the basis of the constitution in the financial year 2024-2025.
The court had also made it clear that the Legislative Assembly has been entrusted with the important responsibility of making, amending, and repealing laws so that justice, equality, and social order can be maintained.
The court had also said that under the Interim Constitution of Azad Jammu and Kashmir 1974, the Local Government Act 1990 and other relevant legal provisions, the members of the Legislative Assembly do not have any legal authority in matters of identifying or allocating local government development projects.
Despite the court’s clear direction, the coalition government of Chaudhry Al-Warul Haq passed the same manual into law just two months after the court’s decision, which the court had said had no legal standing and directed that development funds be spent through local government representatives.
All the parties in the coalition government — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Forward Bloc), Pakistan Muslim League (N), and Pakistan Peoples Party — supported the law. PTI, which is considered the advocate of the local government system in the region, joined the government ranks on this occasion.
It should be noted that earlier money was spent through the members of the assembly and it will still be spent through them. The difference is that earlier it was spent without any law and now it will be spent with the help of the law.
