GUJRAT, Nov 2: The Gujrat city is now divided into 12 urban union councils (UCs) rather than 50 wards, following the upgrade of the Gujrat Municipal Committee to the level of Municipal Corporation.

Dawn learnt on Saturday that the local delimitation officials had proposed limits of 12 UCs of the city by finishing the earlier 50 wards that had been notified during the delimitation process.

In the proposed plan, the population of each union council was kept between 20,000 to 22,000 as according to the last census of 1998, the total population of Gujrat city was around 250,000 that had now increased to 400,000 whereas the requirement for granting the status of municipal corporation, the population of the town should be around 0.5 million souls.

However Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif relaxed the rules for granting Gujrat an upgraded status.