RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has notified committees at the district level to hand over the local government’s assets to the metropolitan municipal corporations (MMC) that would start functioning after the forthcoming local government elections.

A senior official told Dawn that each district of the Rawalpindi division would have a five-member committee, led by the commissioner, which would start functioning next week. He said the committees would prepare the list of funds, assets of the district government departments in Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal to hand them over it to the municipal corporations.

The urban union councils of Rawal Town and Potohar Town in the garrison city would be merged into the MMC while those in the rural areas would come under the District Council. However, Gujar Khan, Taxila, Kahuta and Kalar Syedan will have municipal committees while Murree along with Kotli Sattian will be declared as the municipal corporation due to its significance as the tourist attraction site in the province.

The official said the committees would make assessment of the properties of the Rawal and Potohar town buildings, property and funds and the CDGR’s properties to divide them between the MMC and the District Council.

Metropolitan municipal committee will start functioning after LG elections

When contacted, Commissioner Zahid Saeed said the committees had been formed to hand over the assets to the newly-elected government after the elections.

He said the formation of the committees had been started prior to the elections as it was a lengthy process and would take one or two months. He said the first meeting of the committee in each of the districts would be held soon.

On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has completed the delimitation of union councils and will display the lists on June 1.

The ECP has not made any major changes to the union councils as 46 union councils of Rawal Town and 12 urban union councils of Potohar Town from adjoining areas of Benazir Bhutto International Airport to Soan River have been included in the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation.

Under the Local Government Act 2013, urban union councils should have 20,000 people to use their right to franchise.

When contacted, District Election Commissioner Nadeem Zubair said the delimitation of union councils had almost been completed and the lists would be displayed on June 1.

He said the union councils had been finalised on the basis of the 1998 census. The ECP will give seven days to the citizens and political partied to send their reservations on the lists. “After finalising the union councils, a date will be announced for holding the local government elections,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2015

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