The ANP-led NWFP government has restored the old commissionerate system after approval of a summary by Chief Minister Amir Hyder Khan Hoti last Friday. The summary was dispatched by the Local Government Department for the revival of commissionerate system.
Earlier, Governor Awais Ahmad Ghani gave his seal of approval to the Local Government Amendment Bill 2010. Sources privy to the development said that the governor approved the bill under which the provincial government was authorized to dissolve the local government institutions and appoint administrators in their stead.
The office of deputy commissioner would be formally restored in the second week of February, while the office of district coordination officer [DCO] would be abolished. The Local Government Department would issue a declaration for the revival of commissionerate system. The district and town departments and tehsil municipal administration have been placed under the provincial government.
According to details, the chief minister has approved a list of administrators. The local government elections would be held in three phases after three months. It merits a mention here that the NWFP Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was tabled in the provincial assembly last Monday amid walkout by the opposition parties. The bill empowers the government to dissolve the district, tehsil and town councils and replace elected nazims with administrators.
The opposition members representing the Muttahida Majlas-i-Amal, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and People’s Party Sherpao raised hue and cry in the house as soon as Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who also holds the portfolio of the local bodies ministry, tabled the bill in the house. Only Pakistan Muslim league (Nawaz) supported the bill asking the government to hold the local bodies elections in the province as soon as possible.
The assembly literally divided into two groups beyond party affiliations. One group favored the local government system introduced by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, while the other group called for amendments to the bill.
The bill says that soon after dissolution of the local councils, the government shall appoint an administrator for a local government, who shall perform functions and exercise powers of the nazim, naib nazim and the local council of the local government concerned. The government, according to the bill, may issue directions to the administrators from time to time in the performance of their functions.
Opposing the bill, the opposition parties termed it an unconstitutional and undemocratic step of a democratic government. Expressing reservations about the bill, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said that the dissolution of the local government system was an undemocratic step of the provincial government. He supported the local government system and advised the government against appointing administrators.
Reacting to the opposition leader’s statement, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the district coordination officers would replace district nazims in all the 24 districts of the province after enactment of the law. He rejected the reservations of the opposition leader and said that district nazims had completed their tenure and the provincial government was bound to appoint administrators for the transitional period.
It merits a mention here that President Asif Ali Zardari has delegated all local government powers to the provinces after abolition of the local government ordinance. Under the new ordinance, which has been promulgated by the president after handing over LG powers to provinces, the provinces would be free to amend the local government acts through legislation from their respective assemblies. Keeping in view the authority through a presidential ordinance, the NWFP government decided to table the LG Amendment Bill, 2009 in the recent session of the NWFP assembly for amendments.
Meanwhile, the nazims and councilors have protested against the passage of Local Government (Amendment) Bill and decided to move the court against the dissolution of local councils and appointment of administrators. They termed the ANP-led provincial government’s step unconstitutional and announced to stage protest.
Daniyal Aziz, former chairman of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) and chairman of All Pakistan Local Councils Association, said in a press conference in Peshawar that the bill was also opposed in the provincial assembly but despite that it was passed for amendments. He said the government’s decision was mala fide and it had no visible plan to retain the democratic system of the local government. He said the amendments were meant to revive the British system that exploited the people. He said the bill was passed in a haste and termed it a conspiracy of the bureaucracy. He said the local government representatives would move the court to save the system.
Aziz said that the association would contact Akram Khan Durrani, leader of the opposition in the NWFP Assembly, as well as other political parties to muster support for their struggle. He asked the government to withdraw its decision to replace the administrators with the nazims.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has devised a new security plan that includes raising a 2,000 member community police force, establishing new police posts and facilitating volunteers to form lashkars to secure the provincial capital from terrorist attacks. These decisions were announced at a press conference by Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amir Hyder Khan Hoti.
Hussain said the meeting’s focus was on enhancing security arrangements around the provincial capital with a view to countering the infiltration of militants. On emergency basis, he said, the chief minister had approved raising a community police force. The personnel of the force to be recruited for a period of two years on contract basis would get a salary of Rs 10,000.
The information minister’s press conference has brought a sigh of relief to the scared residents of NWFP, who were earlier told by the provincial government time and again that it could not provide them proper security because of lack of funds and infrastructure. According to a police source, the NWFP police have received billions of rupees from donor countries and federal government for boosting the provincial security. Some police officials believe that proper utilization of funds would enable the department to provide best security to the citizens.