RAWALPINDI: Five months after the local government elections, the administration has yet to bifurcate the assets of the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) between the newly-formed District Council and the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC).

The elections were held on December 5 last year and all the chairmen of the 46 union councils of the city and 110 of the District Council took oath in January. But since then, the elected members have been sitting idle.

The local government bodies will be completed after elections are also held on the special seats reserved for women, labourers, peasants, minorities and youth followed by the election to the mayor of the city and the chairman of the District Council.

However, the provincial government plans to make the local government system functional with the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Five months after the elections, local governments have not been made functional

But the administration has failed to make arrangements to hand over the assets to the local bodies. “After the start of the new system, the services of more than 33,000 employees working with different departments of the CDGR were to be handed over to the RMC and the District Council but still it is not clear who will go to which department,” a senior official told Dawn.

He said the local administration had also failed to arrange offices for the elected representatives.

“Though RMC members will use the building of the Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) and the District Council members will be accommodated in the Potohar Town Municipal Administration offices, a notification is yet to be issued.”

He also said the bifurcation of the assets of small tehsils such as Kotli Sattian, Taxila, Gujar Khan, Kalar Syedan and Kahuta was an issue as in most of the cases the jurisdictions of both the RMC and the District Council overlapped.

“There is no clarity about the use of funds received by CDGR in 2015-16 for the development of the district. So is the case with loans the CDGR took from the finance department as who will return the installments - the District Council or the RMC.”

He said for the preparation of the next fiscal budget for the District Council and the municipal corporation, the finance department had sought details of the CDGR employees but it is also not clear if the budget would be prepared by the finance department or the new local government.

Former district nazim and PTI leader Raja Tariq Mehboob Kayani told Dawn that the PML-N government was delaying the formation of the local governments in violation of the law.

“The current system was established under the Musharraf era Local Government Ordinance and district coordination officer is using all the authorities and financial powers of the district nazim. The provincial government is running the affairs of the district through bureaucracy despite the presence of elected representatives.”

He said the PML-N failed to finalise the names of the mayor and district council chairman as its leadership was busy in public meetings to improve its image after the Panama Papers leaks.

On the other hand, public representatives are also feeling upset over the delay in the formation of the local government.

“I stop even coming out of my house as people gave me vote with expectations to resolve their civic problems,” said Raja Shahid Papu, the chairman of Union Council 32.

He said the residents had pinned high hopes in the elected members that they would solve the civic problems such as sanitation, building plans, encroachments, water supply and streetlights. “But even after we took oath, no official is ready to listen to our requests.”

Former Rawal Town nazim and chairman UC-40, Sheikh Rashid Shafique, said the government did not want to hand over powers to the elected representatives as it would expose its poor governance in Punjab.

However, PML-N former lawmaker Malik Shakil Awan said the government was planning to complete the local government. He said the formation of the local government would be completed on the start of the fiscal year as the government would be in a position to allocate funds for the development of the rural and urban areas.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016