PESHAWAR, Jan 28: The district governments of the NWFP have been asked to develop a conducive working environment and listen to MPAs and councillors in planning the uplift projects, to ensure smooth running of the local government system.

“The provincial government does not want to curtail the district governments’ funds, but there is an emergent need that members of the provincial assembly and union councils be listened to properly in planning the development schemes for they, too, are people’s representatives,” said Sardar Mohammed Idrees, provincial minister for local government and rural development, here on Monday.

He was speaking at the concluding session of a one-day seminar titled “Provincial Finance Commission: Fiscal Transfers from Province to Districts”. The event was jointly organized by the NWFP Finance department and the UNDP-funded Essential Institutional Reform Operationalization Programme.

The local government minister hinted at new legislation “to make the new administrative system effective.’’

Without referring to the protection given to the Local Government Ordinance under the Legal Framework Order, the minister, in an attempt to make the district governments to come to terms, said that the provincial assembly still enjoyed “leverage” by “adopting a resolution (in favour or against)”.

Above all, it would be the provincial legislature which, added the minister, had the authority to pass the provincial budget (allocation of district governments’ funds). He said the provincial government acknowledged the achievements made by the local government institutions. But, he added, there was always a room for improvement, hence the district governments should strive hard for resolving the people’s problems.

NWFP Secretary Finance Zia-ur-Rehman and former VC of the University of Peshawar, Dr Abdul Mateen, also spoke on the occasion.

The finance secretary explained the genesis of the Provincial Finance Commission award — in its first year of operations — and the thinking behind the resource distribution formula envisaged under the award.

Dr Abdul Mateen, who is also a member of the PFC, appeared to be more critical about the provincial and district governments performance viz-a-viz making the local govt system a success. He said that the provincial government failed in giving a viable financial structure to help the district governments overcome financial problems.