PESHAWAR: The Provincial Finance Commission on Friday got its full strength after the induction of four nazims, two each from districts and tehsils, as members.

Other PFC members have already been nominated by the authorities concerned in line with the relevant law, provincial finance minister Muzaffar Said told Dawn.

“With the completion of the PFC, the process of funds distribution among districts and tehsils will commence in the coming week,” said the minister, who is also the PFC chairman.

The PFC getting full strength will pave the way for the utilisation of Rs17.174 billion allocated by the provincial government for the development programmes of local governments in districts and tehsils and towns, say official documents.

The nazims were inducted in the PFC through elections held at the District Council Hall here.

Local government and rural development department secretary Syed Jamaluddin Shah conducted elections as returning officer, while LG&RDD senior minister Inayatullah Khan supervised the electoral process.

Azizullah Alizai of PTI from Dera Ismail Khan and Niaz Ahmad of PML-N from Shangla were elected as PFC members from among district nazims.

While Aslam Hayat Khan of PTI from Ghazi and Azazullah Khan of JUI-F from Sarey Naurang got majority votes from among tehsil nazims to represent local governments in the commission.

Minister says funds distribution to districts, tehsils from next week

Under the new formula, four nazims were elected by the current lot of 23 district and 68 tehsil/town nazims for the PFC unlike the past when the provincial government used to name two nazims.

The district and tehsil nazims reached the city in the morning for elections.

The interested district nazims filed nomination papers from 10am to 11am at the District Council Hall, where after two representatives of district nazims for the PFC were elected between 11am and 12 noon. Similarly, nomination papers by the tehsil and town nazims were filed from 2pm to 3pm. Their two representatives were elected within half an hour.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, states the finance minister will be the chairman of the finance commission.

According to the law, the finance commission consists of local government minister, two members of the provincial assembly, one each nominated by the chief minister and leader of the opposition in the assembly, secretaries of finance, planning and development, local government and law departments, and two nazims each of district and tehsil.

The chief minister has nominated Samiullah Alizai as member of the commission from the government side, while the opposition leader has named Mehmud Bitani to represent opposition in the commission, minister Inayatullah Khan told Dawn.

Finance minister Muzaffar Said insisted that the PFC award for the districts would be announced soon as its process would commence next week.

Asked about the indicators to be considered in the PFC award finalisation, he said initially, four indicators were under consideration including poverty, population, revenue and lack of infrastructure in the districts and tehsils. The minister said the other indicators might also be considered in the PFC award if the commission agreed to it.

He said all efforts would be made to decide the PFC award on merit to prevent the sense of deprivation among the people of underdeveloped districts.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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