19 January 2005	Wednesday	08 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: The government will not appoint administrators for holding local government elections in the country, a well-placed source in the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) told Dawn on Tuesday.

The source said local government elections would be held in April even if there were differences over the issue between the centre and the provinces. The source said the centre would not accept the provinces' demand to appoint administrators for holding the polls after dissolving the present district governments.

"Although meetings are under way between the NRB and the provinces over the issue of administrators, no consensus has been evolved in this regard yet," the source said.

The government, he said, was determined to appoint judges from lower judiciary as returning officers for holding local government polls in their respective districts.

The source said the government had also decided to hold local government polls in all the cantonment areas and in Islamabad. "The government is committed to introducing the local government system in these areas despite the fact that it is being pressurized to shelve the plan," the source said.

Talking about elections of Naib Nazims, the source said this time they would be elected indirectly by members of union councils. "In the last LG elections, Naib Nazims were elected directly despite the fact that the posts of Naib Nazims were created only to assist district Nazims.

The direct election of Naib Nazims created differences over power sharing between the district Nazims and Naib Nazims," the source said. Responding to a question about financial powers of local governments, the source said the provinces had agreed to give due share of revenue to the local governments.

"There is a consensus between the centre and the provinces that local government would be empowered to collect property taxes, water charges, parking fees, bus stands' auction money, etc," he said.

The source said the number of members for each union council would be reduced from 21 to 13, but the proportion of women's seats in the union councils would remain unchanged.