PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Thursday approved an amended version of the Local Government Act, 2013, to bring about two-tier local body system after eliminating district councils and nazim’s post.

The cabinet’s meeting was called to discuss the single-point agenda of amendments to the LG law.

LG minister Shahram Khan Tarakai and information minister Shaukat Yousafzai told reporters after the meeting that the cabinet approved amended version of the law.

Mr Tarakai said following its approval from the assembly, a uniform LG system would be implemented across the province, including merged districts.

Bill proposes two-tier local body system after removal of district councils, nazim post

He said the cabinet had decided to abolish the post of the district nazim and district council in the amended law, while the LG system in the province would comprise two tiers.

The minister said under the amended law, nazims would be referred as the chairman, while the LG system would comprise tehsil and village councils.

He added that the cities would have city and neighbourhood councils.

Mr Tarakai said the government had decided to set up the city local government at divisional level all over the province to be headed by mayor.

He said election for the chairman of tehsil councils and mayor of city local government would be held on the party’s basis, while village and neighbourhood council elections would be held on non-party basis.

The minister said the tehsil chairman and mayor city local government would be elected directly by elections.

He said the village and neighbourhood councils would have 33 per cent quota for women, five per cent for youth, while that of minorities was kept intact in the amended law.

Mr Tarakai said the government had decided to decrease the number of village and neighbourhood council members to six or seven from 10-15.

Regarding the devolution of powers to districts, he said the elementary and secondary education, public health engineering, sports, culture and youth affairs, livestock, social welfare, population, water and sanitation and rural development departments would serve under the tehsil chairman and mayor of the city local council in both urban and rural areas of the province.

The minister said under the amended law, a local government finance commission would be set up wherein the representation of the chairman was increased from two to four and that they would represent five zones of the province.

Mr Tarakai said the LG system’s accounts would be computerised to prevent corruption, while in addition to regular audits by the district account officers and provincial government, the third party audits could also be carried out.

He said tehsil and city councils would approve their budget by a simple majority, while the province would provide 30 per cent of the annual development programme funds to the local bodies.

The minister said the chairman and mayor could be removed from their positions by a two third majority in the house through a no-confidence motion.

He said the provincial capital would have two city local governments and three tehsils.

Mr Tarakai said the assembly’s session would be called later next week to pass the amended LG law.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2019