LAHORE, May 10: The government is considering to give magisterial powers to some officials of district governments so as to implement local and special laws.

The powers might be given to Executive District Officers (Revenue) and Deputy District Officers (Revenue) as desired by almost all district Nazims in the province and agreed upon at the higher level, senior government officers informed Dawn on Saturday.

They said the district Nazims had recommended that these officers should not use the magisterial powers under the command of the District Coordination Officers so as to avoid the impression of the revival of the deputy commissioner’s role under a new nomenclature.

Right now the authorities were considering under whose command these officers should wield the powers of the executive magistrates. But, definitely, the officers would be under the command of the district governments, they said.

The officers said the home department could confer powers on EDOs and DDOs (revenue) without the permission of the high court as the supreme court in its judgment regarding the separation of the judiciary from the executive had declared that the implementation of the local and special laws was the responsibility of the executive and not the judicial magistrates.

They said the executive magistrates had been wielding powers to enforce the laws since the separation of the judiciary from the executive without any objection form any quarters.

After the abolition of the executive magistracy, there had been no mechanism to implement the local and special laws, eroding the writ of the government so far as matters like encroachments were concerned, they said.

Right now, the officers said, there was no officer, who had the powers to remove encroachments, which had once again been sprung up after their across-the-board removal during the last Shahbaz government.

“The encroachers are fully aware of the lack of powers of the district governments and are now exploiting the situation. Such people have encroached upon government lands and extended their homes and buildings in the length and breadth of the province,” they said.

The officers said previously the government used to remove encroachments with the help of police who were obliged to respond because of legal powers of the commanding executive magistrates. “Now, police do not cooperate with them anymore and where they do, they do it half-heartedly,” they said.

They said similarly there had been no mechanism to control adulteration and keep a check on prices and those indulging in it were fully exploiting the situation.

The government had faced a great deal of problems for holding Ramazan Bazaars during the last Ramazan as there was no legal authority to keep a check on the prices and quality of products sold there.