PESHAWAR, Oct 9: Reports about the possible suspension of the local body system before the general elections have worried the district and tehsil nazims, who believe such a move will affect ‘service delivery’ and decelerate the ongoing development work in the province.

A number of elected representatives from diverse political backgrounds told Dawn that local governments were acting as front-line service providers, which would become redundant if their supervisory role was eliminated or even curtailed.

Mardan District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar said the local body elections had been held on a non-party basis, so there was no logic for suspending them for general elections. He said the Election Commission could take action against a nazim if he tried to influence the electoral process.

He said that under the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, district and tehsil governments had been delegated certain administrative and financial obligations which could not be performed appropriately in the absence of elected representatives.

Media reports suggest that curtailing the powers of district and tehsil nazims is part of the deal between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. However, even district nazims in the NWFP backed by the PPP are opposing the move.

Daud Khan Khattak, the PPP-backed nazim of the Nowshera district, alleged that the provincial government had already curtailed the powers of district nazims and they were not authorised to chair meetings of district development and price review committees.

Suspension of the system would heighten the misery of the people, he added. He suggested that if the government wanted to contain the role of elected representatives in the general elections, it should take an undertaking from them that they would not get involved in the electoral process.

If anybody violated the undertaking, he said, the government might take action against him or her.

Charsadda District Nazim Naseer Mohammad Khan, who is likely to be the PPP’s candidate for a National Assembly seat in the coming elections, also opposed suspension of the local body system.

The local governments, he said, had been allowed to operate freely during the 2002 election, so suspension of the system before the next elections made no sense. He said that with time the institutions needed to be strengthened not weakened.

Arbab Mohammad Amir, nazim of Town-IV, Peshawar, is equally concerned about suspension of the system. “The execution of development projects ... funds, is the responsibility of tehsil and town municipal administrations.

“Currently, most of them are busy in completion of projects for which the provincial government had released funds. The pace of work and its monitoring will be affected if the government suspends the local body system.”