PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is contemplating a proposal to restore the district and union council tiers of the local government system that were abolished in 2019 and 2013, respectively.

Though rationale for the proposed move isn’t immediately clear, sources in the Premier Imran Khan-led party claimed that the government was eyeing something closer to the Musharraf-era LG system for effective governance at the grassroots level.

They said the proposal was examined by the PTI’s top guns both in the centre and KP during a recent meeting at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad.

The PTI government in the province had abolished the union council tier of the LG system through the KP LG Act, 2013, and replaced union councils with wards and introduced a new tier of village and neighbourhood councils. Every ward consists of two to three village and neighbourhood councils.

In 2019, the KP government amended the LG law and abolished the district tier as well leaving only two tiers of tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils.

Insiders claim PTI eyeing something closer to Musharraf’s LG system

The abolition of the local body system’s district tier attracted widespread criticism from political parties, bureaucracy and LG experts, who contend that the district being the major tier of the LG system should have not been abolished.

According to them, the district tier-minus system means politically headless districts and empowerment of an already entrenched bureaucracy instead of the grassroots leadership.

Following abolition of the district tier through an amendment to the LG Act, the government devolved departments controlled by district governments to tehsil level and enacted rules besides a heavy homework on the subject.

However, the devolution of powers from district to tehsil also came under fire from critics, who insisted that only six of the 18 departments were transferred to tehsils, while the control of the rest was reverted to the provincial government.

In the first tenure of the ruling PTI, 24 departments were devolved to local bodies under the KP LG Act, 2013.

However, the provincial government kept interfering in the affairs of the district governments and took the control of six departments by amending the law on different occasions leaving district governments with 18 departments only.

The critics also pointed out that it was ironic as on one hand, the provincial government had announced a date for the holding of LG elections but on the other, it was considering to drastically change the LG law.

He said the government had carried out a huge exercise by amending the law, drafting rules and carrying out devolution from district to tehsil level but even before holding a single election under the new system, it was reverting to the old system.

“It seems like that the KP government is wandering down a dark alley and has no direction,” he said.

In Aug 2018 when the last local bodies completed their tenure and in 2019 after the abolition of the district tier of the LG system, the Election Commission of Pakistan conducted the delimitation of constituencies for the next LG polls for the two-tier system in the province.

In its reply to the Supreme Court in a case, the ECP said it had decided to hold local body elections in KP in two stages from April 8 to May 29.

An ECP official told Dawn that it was too late for the provincial government to go for fresh changes to the LG system as fresh delimitation for the proposed LG system was impossible due to a short period of time available before the polls.

The provincial cabinet had decided in its meeting last month that the LG polls in the province would be held on Sept 15. However, the cabinet reviewed the decision in a meeting held on Feb 2 and decided that the polls would take place in Aug.

An official claimed that the ECP was not agreeing to the holding of polls in Aug or Sept.

Spokesperson for the provincial government Kamran Bangash was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021