PESHAWAR, July 22: The coalition partners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have agreed in principle with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s proposal to establish village and neighbourhood councils across the province to devolve maximum powers to the grassroots level, according to officials.

In this connection a meeting of the representatives of PTI’s coalition partners -- Jamaat-i-Islam and Qaumi Watan Party -- and members of the working group on local government was held here on Monday.

Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan chaired the meeting that was also attended by Provincial Minister for Communication and Works Yousaf Ayub Khan, Minister for Agriculture Shehram Khan Tarakai, QWP lawmaker Aneesazeb Tahirkheli, JI leader Dr Mohammad Iqbal Khalil, LG&RD Secretary Hifzur Rehman, Peshawar Commissioner Sahibzada Anees and experts on local government and members of the working-group.

The participants agreed on establishment of village council, said a source privy to the meeting. Most of the participants suggested against establishing tehsil council, one of the four tiers of local government system proposed by PTI. Other tiers of the proposed local government include village, union, tehsil and district councils.

The source said that several participants were of the view that there would be no need for forming union council in the presence of village council. They suggested to PTI to delete the union council from the proposed system, he said, adding at the end of the meeting the participants agreed with the suggestion to abolish the tier of the tehsil council.

They said that a new tier would be introduced consisting of 20 to 25 village and neighbourhood councils or four to five union councils because it would be easy to control administratively the village and neighbourhood councils. The new tier would be set up on the pattern of tehsil council but it would be small in size, the source said. During the meeting, he said, a sub-working group was formed to come up with suggestions regarding the new tier.

The source said that the working group suggested to the participants to give more powers to the village council which was beyond the PTI vision. The proposed powers of the village council would include keeping check on police and revenue officials.

He said that village council would also be responsible to remove the encroachments and keep vigilance on law and order situation.

The source said that a government representative with the designation of secretary would be deputed at each village and neighbourhood council. Each village council would be set up for 4,000 to 8,000 population while there would be three to four village councils in each union council.

The village and neighbourhood council will consist of 11 elected councillors including six general, two women, one each from youth, peasants and minorities, according to sources.

Addressing the meeting Inayatullah Khan said that the working group would draft the new local government law soon that would be presented to the provincial cabinet for approval. The passage of the new law from the assembly would pave the way for the local bodies’ elections by the end of October, he said.