RAWALPINDI: With the winding up of the local government system introduced by former president Pervez Musharraf on Jan 1, the old commissioner system will be functional in Rawalpindi and the other 35 districts of Punjab from Monday.

Under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, the district coordination officer (DCO) will be replaced by the deputy commissioner who will head the district administration.

From Jan 2, the new education and health authorities will also become functional in the province.

The Rawal Town Municipal Administration will be converted into Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) while the Potohar Town Municipal Administration will be merged into the District Council.

Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem has called a meeting of the RMC on Monday in which all the 46 union council chairmen, women, technocrat, labour, minority and youth members will participate.

The mayor told Dawn that the meeting had been convened on the instruction of the Punjab governor.

He said there was no specific agenda of the meeting as it would be an introductory session.

The mayor said the elected representatives would get the charge from the administration on Monday. A formal meeting of the RMC will be called soon to discuss issues facing the residents of the city.

The education and health departments remained separated from the defunct city district government on Jan 1.

“Though political figures will be appointed as chairmen of the education and health authorities, the deputy commissioner will head the authorities for an interim period,” Deputy Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal told Dawn.

He said the old system would be replaced from Monday but some departments would go back to the provincial governments and the transition would take some time.

The posts of the executive district officers education and health will be called the chief executive officers of the District Education Authority and the District Health Authority.

“The notification for the establishment of the education authority has been issued but the appointment of the EDO as the chief executive officer will be announced in a day or two,” said EDO education Qazi Zahoorul Haq.

On the other hand, the civil bureaucracy expressed resentment over the Civil Administration Ordinance 2016 through which the government did not put the police under the administrative control of the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners.

“During the last two days, the assistant commissioners did not work in 143 tehsils of the province, saying it would be difficult for them to remove encroachments, demarcate land and tackle other

civilian problems without the police being under their control,” said an assistant commissioner requesting not to be named.

He said the provincial government wanted to resolve all issues such as encroachments, protests, law and order but the assistant commissioners would not be in a position to deliver without having the magisterial powers.

He said the government should provide magisterial powers to the assistant commissioners which they enjoyed before the local government system introduced by military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

He said in case of a protest or any other issue, the assistant commissioner or the deputy commissioner concerned directed the police to control the situation.

Published in Dawn January 2nd, 2017