PESHAWAR, Aug 16: The provincial working group on Local Government and Rural Development Department on Friday recommended party-based elections to district and tehsil councils and non-party elections to village and neighbourhood councils. The working group finalised its recommendations in its meeting held on Friday with Provincial Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan in the chair. As discussed in previous meetings of the group, the village and neighbourhood councils would be the powerful tier of local government, according to participants of the meeting. Each village and neighbourhood council would consist of 10 members, including five general members, two women and one each member from youth, minority and labour. The population covered under the village and neighbourhood councils would be from 2,000 to 10,000. The neighbourhood councils would be set up in urban areas and village councils in rural areas. The population covered under the neighbourhood council would be more than the village council as population in villages was spread over vast area compared to cities. The village and neighbourhood councils would be responsible for monitoring different departments in their respective jurisdictions, including educational institutions, health units, police activities, public health, revenue and other departments. These councils would submit reports concerning these departments with the district and tehsil councils. The working group has also recommended 33 per cent share for women’s representation in the district and tehsil councils, five per cent for youths and five per cent for minorities. On district level, the District Development Committee will work under the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC). Members of the provincial assembly from the respective districts and chairmen of the district and tehsil councils would be members of the DDAC. The chief minister will appoint one of the MPAs as the DDAC chairman. After deliberations, the group agreed that the decision about direct elections for the chairmanship of the district and tehsil councils would be taken by the chiefs of political parties of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa coalition government. Unlike the previous local government system, the nomenclature of the deputy commissioner will not be changed but some of his powers would be reduced. Besides other powers, the powers of maintaining law and order and controlling prices of different items would be with the DC. One of the participants told this correspondent that some of the bureaucrats at the meeting were not happy with the proposal to clip powers of the deputy commissioner. Asked about the proposed draft law for local government, he said that there would be some similarities in the proposed local government law and the law of president Musharraf era. He said that the secretary of LG&RD Hifzur Rehman had been tasked to finalise the proposed law in the light of the working group’s recommendations. After approval by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the recommendations would be presented to PTI chief Imran Khan, Prof Ibrahim and Sirajul Haq of Jamaat-i-Islami and Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. The meeting was also attended by provincial minister for communication and works Yousuf Ayub Khan, MPAs Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli, Sardar Idrees, Samiullah Alizai, Iqbal Khalil and Commissioner Peshawar Mohammad Anees.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 19:23:26 +0000
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