LAHORE, June 29: The federal government has yet to send the Local Government Ordinance draft amendment to the Punjab authorities, rendering them unable to appoint the much-trumpeted price magistrates by the given deadline of June 30.

“We have not received the proposed amendment to the ordinance providing for the appointment of price magistrates. And the situation in other provinces is the same,” official sources informed Dawn at 4pm on Thursday.

The appointment of price magistrates was announced by the federal government on the occasion of the presentation of its budget for 2006-07. And the announcement that they would be appointed in Punjab by June 30 was made in the provincial assembly during its current session.

According to sources, the amendment to the ordinance would be made by the provinces only after receiving a pattern from the National Reconstruction Bureau which represents the federal government. It had been agreed in principle that the price magistrates would be appointed but the provincial governments could not provide for them in the ordinance on their own, sources said.

They said amendment to the ordinance also required a prior approval by the president, which would also be sought by the NRB.

They said most probably the officers of the district governments would be given powers of price magistrates as there would be no fresh appointments. They could also include the few remaining municipal magistrates.

The price magistrates would conduct raids, get samples, check prices and stocks, and punish the violators of the local laws only pertaining to food items. Besides imposing fine, the magistrates could keep a violator behind the bars without bail for 72 hours.

Meanwhile, official circles have expressed serious concern over the post of price magistrates, saying they would act merely as the canal magistrates who had the only privilege of using the nomenclature on their nameplates or number plates of their vehicles.

“The price magistrates would not be able to deliver like the executive magistrates because the latter used to derive all executive and legal powers from the CrPC,” they said.

They said the executive magistrates represented state at the lowest level and were responsible for all the good and bad things in their respective areas of jurisdiction. This was so because they were the legal heads of every department and the police, having no problem in carrying out a government policy.

Above all they used to work under the umbrella of sub-divisional magistrates (assistant commissioners) and district magistrates (deputy commissioners).

“Now, the district is headed by an elected nazim who cares for his voters more than a policy and the police are not under his control like they were under the magistracy. The canal magistrate is actually an irrigation XEN who is only given the title,” they explained.