PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to modernise urban areas development authorities and tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs) with the purpose to make them financially stable.

For this purpose, new reforms will be introduced in urban areas development authorities and TMAs across the province, according to a statement issued here on Wednesday.

This decision was made during a meeting of local government department held here with Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in the chair. The meeting was attended by Provincial Minister for Local Government Arshad Ayub Khan, Adviser to Chief Minister for Finance Muzzammil Aslam, Local Government Secretary Dr Ambar Ali, and other officials from local government department.

The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the challenges faced by e urban areas development authorities and their solutions. It was decided that new reforms would be implemented in all TMAs and urban areas development authorities by June of the current year. To achieve this, international best practices will be adopted in these institutions.

The committee of sponsoring organisations of tread way commission enterprise risk management framework will be enforced in these institutions. Similarly, international public sector accounting standards will also be implemented in TMAs and urban areas development authorities.

The meeting was informed that the new reforms would lead to financial stability and improved performance of TMAs and urban areas development authorities. The authorities told the meeting that reforms were already implemented in the Urban Area Development Authority Kohat, yielding positive results.

Before these reforms, the Urban Area Development Authority Kohat had an annual deficit of Rs49 million, whereas after the implementation of the reforms, it was expected to have a surplus of Rs 25.7 million.

The chief minister directed that the model of UADA Kohat should be adopted in all TMAs and urban areas development authorities, emphasising that making those institutions self-sufficient and enhancing their capacity was the need of the hour.

“The provincial government is committed to strengthening and stabilising these institutions”, he added.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2025