PESHAWAR, Nov 30: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday notified names of the chairmen of recently revived District Development Advisory Committees (DDACs), settling down a thorny issue that kept haunted the coalition partners for the last couple of months.

A notification issued by Local Government and Rural Development Department said that elected representatives would assume charge of DDACs chairman in their respective districts with immediate effect.

The provincial assembly had adopted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Establishment of District Development Advisory Committees (Amended) Act, 2010 on Sept 6, enabling the chief minister to revive the powerful bodies in each district to regulate utilisation of uplift funds.

The DDACs, led by a Member Provincial Assembly, were influential bodies at district level before the introduction of devolution of power plan, which dismantled the basic governance structure including the said committees. Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, according to law, was supposed to nominate by Sept 15 the chairmen of the committees, to start functioning by Oct 1 this year.

But the timeline given in the original bill was deleted before the provincial assembly could pass the legislation mainly owing to differences between Awami National Party and Pakistan People's Party, the coalition partners, over the chairmanship of those committees, an official told Dawn .

Sources in both the parties said that a series of meetings held between the leaders of two sides during last couple of months to settle the issue on the basis of a formula they had already devised for the purpose.

As per the agreement, any party having majority seats in a district is supposed to get the slot of chairman DDAC, while in a district, where the representation in the provincial assembly is equal from both the parties, the issue is supposed to be settled down through negotiations.As a result of these deliberations, Chief Minister Hoti on Tuesday approved the nominations, ending the controversy that remained in circles since the passage of the bill from the provincial assembly.

According to the notification, Alamgir Khan Khalil of ANP had been nominated as chairman DDAC for Peshawar, Shakeel Bashir Umerzai for Charsadda, Mukhtiar Ali Advocate for Swabi, Mian Nisar Gul Kakaklhel for Karak, Gohar Nawaz Khan for Haripur, Said Rahim for Buner and Rehmat Ali for Swat DDAC.

MPAs from PPP and their respective districts include Maj (retired) Baseer Ahmed Khattak for Nowshera, Sher Afghan Khan for Mardan, Samiullah Khan Alizai for Dera Ismail Khan, Adnan Khan for Bannu, Anwar Saifullah Khan for Lakki Marwat, Mohammad Anwar Khan for Dir Upper, Mohammad Zamin Khan for Dir Lower and Syed Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha for Malakand.

Similarly, Independent MPAs Attiqur Rehman has been nominated as chairman DDAC for Hangu, Habibur Rehman for Mansehra, Fazalullah for Shangla and Taj Mohammad Khan Tarand for Battagram district. Mohammad Javed Abbasi of PML-N and Ghulam Mohammad of PML-Q will head DDACs of Abbottabad and Chitral districts respectively.

The chairmen for Kohistan and Kohat districts have not been notified, as according to the officials the parties are not able to reach a consensus there. “Likewise, name of Tank DDAC chairman will be announced later on after by-elections are held on the vacant seat of provincial assembly from this district,” the official added.