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PESHAWAR The NWFP government is converting the post of district coordination officer into deputy commissioner, a step believed to help regain the 'glory' bureaucracy had lost in the aftermath of the devolution of power plan introduced in 2001.
A summary for converting the existing 24 posts of DCOs into deputy commissioners (DCs) has been forwarded to Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, who has principally agreed but a formal decision is expected shortly, an official told Dawn here on Wednesday.
The NWFP was the first province to revive the seven revenue divisions abolished in 2001 when former president Pervez Musharraf introduced the devolution of power plan, aiming at curtailing the powers of bureaucracy.
Amendments to the Land Revenue Act adopted by the NWFP Assembly at its last sitting legalised the revival of the seven divisions, each to be headed by a commissioner.
Since the amendments also had provisions for the posts of DCs and assistant commissioners (ACs) to deal with revenue-related issues and cases, the easy way to materialise them was to change the nomenclature of the DCOs' post as DCs, said the official, adding 'The revival of posts of DC and AC will be carried out in the same manner.'
Before the introduction of the existing local bodies system, the post of DC was the centre of power at the local level and the DC would also act as district magistrate apart from providing lead role to all the departments. Similarly, the DC would supervise police as well as serve as a coordinator between district and provincial governments.
However, most of the executive powers were delegated to the elected representatives, whereas police were virtually made an independent entity after implementation of the new system.
Many in official circles believe that the nazims who were delegated the executive powers once enjoyed by the bureaucracy were not trained enough to exercise their authority in a proper manner that caused perplexity and failure of institutions.
The official said the proposed Local Government Act, 2008, which had been approved by the provincial cabinet and submitted to the federal government, also spoke about the revival of executive magistracy to be exercised by deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners in the province.
The provincial government, he said, considered that it needed revival of the old system of commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners to deal with the issues of lawlessness, price hike and general public complaints.
