Lahore: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Engineer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Thursday said that Punjab had awakened, and the rising demand for an empowered local government system would soon spread across the country.Talking to journalists during his visit to a polling camp in Township, Lahore, on the first day of the four-day public referendum on the Punjab Local Government Act, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that a large number of men and women actively participated in the referendum. He announced that, in the light of the referendum's outcome, Jamaat-e-Islami would surround the Punjab Assembly in protest, adding that the protest would continue until the black law was withdrawn.JI Lahore Ameer Ziauddin Ansari Advocate, Secretary Information JI Pakistan Shakil Ahmed Turabi and other leaders also present on the occasion.For the referendum, independent referendum commissions had been formed at the centre and in all districts of Punjab, with Ahmed Bilal Mehboob appointed as Chief Election Commissioner. To facilitat e free public expression, thousands of polling camps had been set up at intersections, streets, markets, educational institutions and other public places across the province. Around 1,400 camps had been established in Lahore alone, while thousands more were set up in other districts.Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the first day of the referendum witnessed great enthusiasm, with a large turnout of men and women recording their opinions. He demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Punjab Local Government Act, terming it an insult to democracy and the people, and called for the announcement of a date for local government elections.He said the people of Punjab had been deprived of grassroots governance for the last ten years, while the local government law had been amended repeatedly. Referring to Islamabad, he said its local government law had been changed five times, reflecting what he described as the ruling elite's reluctance to devolve power. He added that provincial governments remained obsessed with holding authority, and that the local government system in other provinces was also virtually non-existent.Criticising ruling families, the JI chief said they did not want the people to be empowered, preferring to retain power like 'kings and queens' surrounded by loyalists. He said that political workers were also denied authority within their own parties, saying Jamaat-e-Islami was challenging dynastic politics and standing firmly in the field for the rights of the people, both nationally and globally.Hafiz Naeemur Rehman further criticised provisions in the Punjab Local Government Act related to non-party-based elections, calling them a deviation from the Constitution and democratic norms. He said that under the law, even a union council chairman would not be elected through a direct vote and would be required to join a political party within a month, a move he said was aimed at extending the practice of horse-trading-seen in the Senate and National Assembly-down to the grassroots level.He said local governm ents and student unions were considered the nurseries of democracy, but both remained banned in Pakistan. 'We will not accept this black law under any circumstances,' he said, adding that the struggle for strengthening democracy would continue with full force.