LAHORE: The Board of Revenue has notified four new districts — Wazirabad, Murree, Kot Addu and Talagang — out of five approved by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, as the fifth — Taunsa Sharif — is likely to be notified next week soon after the realignment of Fort Munro tehsil that touches D.G. Khan district.

Some politicians had app­roached the provincial government demanding that Fort Munro tehsil should be attached to Dera Ghazi Khan district, which is just 30km away, while the same tehsil is more than 100km from Taunsa Sharif, sources say.

It would be relatively unfeasible for a large population to look towards Taunsa Sharif for the resolution of their problems, they had complained.

It is learnt that the BoR would be moving a summary for attaching Fort Munro with D.G. Khan, instead of Taunsa Sharif, early next week.

The Punjab government will be required to establish a complete district administrative set-up in new districts after the notification.

Each district will have district offices of all provincial departments. Each district will also get separate budget for its functioning.

In the new local government set-up, the new districts will have district councils and it may require to amend the latest Punjab Local Government Act.

The chief minister had accorded approval to curve out five new districts, on the instructions of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, at a meeting on Thursday.

Senior BoR member Zahid Akhtar Zaman had given a detailed briefing on new districts in Punjab at the meeting.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022