LAHORE: The Punjab government approved on Tuesday amendments to the Local Government Ordinance of 2001 and revenue laws, transferring the revenue administration from the districts to the provincial government. A cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took note of faults in the computerised system of intermediate and matriculation examinations and suspended the Education EDOs of Sheikhupura and Jhang.
The chief minister announced that a separate matriculation examination would be held for students who could not take the exams because of the faults.
The cabinet approved new Punjab Government Rules of Business and 18 laws regarding the transfer of federal functions to the province under the 18th Amendment.
Punjab is the first province which has amended its Rules of Business in the light of the amendment, transferring powers of the governor to the chief minister.
“This has been done as the 18th Amendment defines the government as the provincial government, shifting everything previously conducted in the name of the governor to the chief minister or his representatives,” an official said.
The approved drafts of the amended laws will be taken to the provincial assembly for adoption. However, according to sources, the issue is not on the agenda of the assembly session due to begin on March 11.
The draft Local Government Amendment Ordinance envisages abolition of the posts of EDOs for revenue, information technology, literacy and law and DOs and DDOs for revenue.
It mentions downgrading of the posts of DCOs of five city district governments from the existing BS-21 to BS-20.
Officials explained that by amending the ordinance, the Land Revenue Act and 15 related revenue laws, the government had moved towards directly assuming charge of the revenue administration which had been devolved to the district governments in 2001.
They said further legislation was required to fully re-introduce a revenue system directly under the provincial government, but this would be done later.
After adoption of the amendments by the Punjab Assembly, the revenue administration will stand revived as it stood on Aug 13, 2001, a day before the local government system was introduced by the Musharraf government.
The appellate power of the EDOR will be returned to the divisional commissioners and the provincial government will restore the office of assistant commissioner (assistant collector).
Officials said it was yet to be decided as to who would act as district collector. For the time being, a new office of district collector will be introduced to replace the DOR.
Before the introduction of the local government system, the deputy commissioner used to act as district collector.
The taxation powers of EDOR will the transferred to EDO (finance). The functions and powers of the abolished posts of EDOs for law, literacy and IT will be distributed among officers of the same rank in the district governments.
The 18 laws relating to the functions of federal government which have been transferred to the provinces are related to the Board of Revenue and the law, social welfare, labour, information and health departments. The provincial cabinet has so far approved 26 such laws.
The chief minister set up a cabinet committee for strict implementation of the minimum wages law in the light of orders of the Supreme Court.
The cabinet took decisions for computerisation of the examination system and immediate removal of flaws in this regard.
The chief minister praised the system but criticised the secretaries of higher and school education for not creating awareness before launching it. He said they should have anticipated likely problems in the system. They also did not focus on promptly clarifying objections to the system, he said.
The secretaries said 17,000 candidates of matriculation could not be issued online roll number slips in time because many of them had not properly filled the online application forms. All of them had been issued manual slips and they had appeared in the examinations, they said.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over the performance of the education and health EDOs, the chief minister said an army of such officers had failed to improve those sectors. He said their failure to conduct classes in spite of the availability of teachers and school buildings was a proof of their poor performance. He said the education EDOs would now be selected through a search committee.
