25 August 2004	Wednesday	08 Rajab 1425

PESHAWAR, Aug 24: Many district nazims on Tuesday said that the overlapping of powers between provincial and local governments has affected the functioning of local governments over the past three years.

The observation was made at a discussion organized by the All Women Advancement and Resource Development (Award), an NGO, on 'the progress of local government, constraints and bridging gaps between the provincial and local governments'.

Kohat district nazim Malik Asad said the local government lacked funds and complained that the MPAs did not understand the problems of nazims and thus did not cooperate with them.

Bannu district nazim Iqbal Khan pointed out that development schemes were imposed on the local governments from the top without considering the real problems and needs of the locality concerned.

The meeting was told that the overlapping of powers and a 'tussle' between the provincial government and the centre had created a gap between the local and the provincial governments.

One participant said that the devolution plan was good in itself but there was no concept of power sharing among the concerned government machineries which had rendered it ineffective.

Bashir Antonio of the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development said the provincial and local governments were equally responsible for the welfare and development of people and added that a tussle between the two governments had led to non-development.

The participants suggested that there should be a coordination council which would keep liaison among the local, provincial and federal governments. Batagram district nazim Attaullah said that the Local Government Ordinance was implemented without taking into consideration the local culture and environment and said it was because of this anomaly that local governments had become inefficient.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Nisar Gul, MPA, said that nazims and MPAs should consult each other from time to time to resolve the problems of a locality.