PESHAWAR, March 7: The NWFP government wants to restore the office of executive magistrates to end ambiguities caused by the abolition of this important institution under the devolution of power plan introduced in Aug 2001, said official sources.

A formal request to this effect will shortly be made to the federal government for allowing the province to restore the office in order to make the district administrations effective, they added.

The NWFP government is of the view that abolition of the executive magistrate office has caused more ills than yielding positive results as was boasted by mentors of the devolution plan.

“The government believes that restoration of the office will strengthen administrative set up at the district level and improve law and order situation in the province,” said the sources, adding that “the abolition of the posts has given birth to multiple issues confronting smooth functioning of the district governments”.

In several instances it has not yet been decided as to who will actually use the powers and authority previously vested in the office of executive magistrates.

This situation apparently brought the district Nazism (elected heads of the district governments) and district coordination officers (DCO) (heads of bureaucracy in districts) at logger heads over the question of using the district magistrates’s powers.

In this respect, the provincial government will formally take up the matter directly with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali during his upcoming scheduled visit to Peshawar on Saturday [March 8].

The premier would formally be requested to allow restoration of the executive magistrate office during a briefing on Saturday, said a source.

Apart from the restoration of the executive magistrate’s office, said the sources, the provincial government would also make presentations to the premier regarding certain issues.

The issues to be taken up with the prime minister include expansion of Bannu airport, the home district of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, and construction of a new air port at Peshawar at any of the sites already identified.