LAHORE, Nov 19: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has convened a meeting of all the provincial chief ministers on Nov 22 reportedly to decide future of the local government system.

A similar meeting was postponed around two months ago, dampening the hopes of the Punjab government to do away with the local government system introduced by Pervez Musharraf in 2002 and reintroduce executive magistracy and the defunct colonial office of deputy commissioner.

In the meantime, it followed the NWFP in restoring the defunct divisional commissioners without interfering in the powers of district governments on the instructions of Governor Salmaan Taseer.

This time the Punjab government seems to be careful in explicitly expressing what it wants in place of the existing local government system.

“The prime minister has convened the meeting of chief ministers on Nov 22, and we hope a major change in the local government system,” a senior official told Dawn on Wednesday.

“The provincial governments of Balochistan and the NWFP are ahead of others in demanding the restoration of the executive magistracy. And we are also saying the same,” the official said when asked whether Punjab still desired the defunct administrative system.

He said the Ministry of Local Government and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) would submit their proposals regarding future of the existing local governments, and a decision would be made by the prime minister in consultation with the chief ministers.

The provinces had already made it clear that the existing local government system was unworkable, and had to be replaced for the good of the country and people, he said.

The official hoped that the new local government system would be a mixture of the positive workable aspects of the Local Government Ordinances of 1979 and 2002.

When asked to explain salient features of the anticipated system, he said the provinces would like to retain 33 per cent seats for women in local governments, and the supply of development funds to them through the provincial finance commission. They would also like to retain the existing conciliation councils.

But they wanted to restore the rural and urban divide deleted under the existing system. And if this happened, the role of a DCO would have to be redefined as he could not also work as the staff officer of the district council chairman, the official said.