September 20, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 19: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has convened a meeting of all the provincial chief ministers on Sept 27 to discuss the future of the local government system which the Punjab PML-N government wants to abolish and replace with the colonial deputy commissioners.

“We are going to the meeting scheduled to be held in Islamabad with our demand of abolishing the present local government system and restoring the defunct local bodies of 1979 and the executive magistracy to save the country from further chaos,” a senior government official told Dawn here on Friday.

He claimed that almost all the provinces agreed on the withdrawal of the existing (local government) system introduced by the Musharraf regime because it had created countless problems, making it hard to establish the writ of the government anywhere in the country.

When asked whether the foreign financial institutions which had been funding the system launched in 2001 would allow its abolition, the official said they (the institutions) had asked for decentralisation of powers, and not the devolution of power introduced by the Musharraf regime.

He said by establishing the district governments, the regime had inflated the size of the government and eliminated the chain of command necessary to establish the writ of the state. “We have numerous vacancies, but lack officials to fill them,” he said.

The official said the provincial government had already finalised a draft law to replace the existing local government and district administration system, but could not implement it because of the political struggle it was engaged in.

The draft law was prepared by the NWFP government on the request of a committee comprising local government ministers of all the provinces. It was formed at the federal level to assess the pros and cons of the local government system.

The draft prepared by the NWFP was sent to the three provinces for comments. In Punjab, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif formed five committees to assess it.

He said the final agreement was to restore the local government system of 1979, revive the posts of mayors, deputy mayors and chairmen of ‘zila’ councils. And for better management it was necessary to restore the office of deputy commissioner.

Through this the government would be able to re-establish its lost administrative chain of command down to the district level.

The official said while intending to transfer the district nazims’ administrative powers to the deputy commissioners, the PML-N government nevertheless wanted to maintain the existing portion of the local governments’ annual budget.

“The district governments have been receiving huge funds since their inception. But the money has been plundered in most instances. We intend to give this money now to mayors and zila council chairmen to enable them to conduct development at the local level,” the official said.He just gave a smile when asked whether the mayors and zila council chairmen would be selected on the basis of honesty and sincerity of purpose, or through normal methods of electioneering.