PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday introduced a bill in the provincial assembly proposing drastic changes to the local government law for the return of the control of 10 devolved departments to the government and abolition of the district tier of the LG system.

The proposed amendments to the KP LG Act, 2013, suggest that the new LG system consist of tehsil as well as village and neighbourhood councils after the abolition of district councils.

Under the bill, some powers of the district council and nazim will be devolved to the tehsil government, while the rest will be returned to the provincial government.

Bill tabled in PA also proposes abolition of district councils

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, was tabled by local government minister Shahram Tarakai.

The proposed law also covers the merged tribal districts.

Critics insist that the abolition of district councils is a violation of articles 140-A and 37 (I) of Constitution and is meant to give sweeping powers to bureaucracy by removing the district tier of the LG system and return the control of more than 10 devolved departments at the district level to the government.

The KP LG Act, 2013, had devolved 24 departments to district governments from the provincial government. However, the provincial government kept interfering in the affairs of the district governments’ domain and took the control of six departments by amending the law on different occasions leaving district governments with 18 departments.

The critics say the bill proposes to snatch the control of 10 more departments from districts and return it to the provincial government.

According to them, the nazims struggled to comprehend to budgeting system during the first two years of the LG law’s introduction but when they managed it, the government is going to change it.

The previous PTI government brought amendments to the existing LG law almost in every session of the assembly attracting criticism from the opposition, which complained that they’re not consulted.

After the bill’s approval, election for tehsil chairman will be conducted directly on party basis. Currently, the council elects one of its members as nazim.

Also, the chairmen of the village and neighbourhood councils will be members of the tehsil councils. Under the existing LG system, a separate election is held for the member of the tehsil council.

In the proposed new system, the chairman of the tehsil council will represent a political party, while the council members will be elected on non-party basis.

Currently, members of the village and neighbourhood councils total 10-15. The number will come down to six or seven in the proposed system.

After the creation of tribal districts, the number of village and neighbourhood councils has increased from 3,501 to 4,203.

In the proposed law, the name of the nazim has been changed with chairman.

The bill proposed the changing of Peshawar’s city district government to the city local government.

Currently, a village and neighbourhood council covers 2,000-10,000 population but its size will increase to 5,000-15,000.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2019