LAHORE, May 11: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will once again be briefed on the implementation of the local government system in Punjab at the Governor House here on Monday.
Governor Khalid Maqbool was asked by the president to monitor implementation of the system in the province through a letter, and since then he had been actively monitoring the system.
He has reportedly found the system on track after meetings with Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and senior officials of his government.
Official sources informed Dawn on Sunday that the governor had already conveyed the progress to the president in meetings with the latter in Lahore and Islamabad.
The governor was about to send an official reply to the letter, which, however, would not mention that the system had been brought back on track after his intervention, the sources claimed, adding that the impression had already been conveyed to the president verbally.
They said the governor would verbally inform the president on Monday that after his intervention the provincial finance commission and the local government commission held meetings and the province started thinking about the implementation of local and special laws.
He would tell the president that funding of the districts had been clean and the province had started moving towards the creation of vital community development boards after notifying rules for them on a pattern provided by the National Reconstruction Bureau.
Sources said the governor would convey to the president the lack of a policy regarding the transfer and posting of officials in local bodies and that the government had started thinking about it after his intervention.
They said that to help the president see the actual picture of local governments, the governor had invited all district Nazims to directly convey their problems to him.
It may be mentioned here that National Reconstruction Bureau chairman Danyal Aziz also called on the governor two days ago to help the latter ascertain the state of affairs in the local bodies, which the bureau wanted to function so eagerly.
The system was designed by the NRB under its former chairman, Lt-Gen Tanvir Husain Naqvi (retired), and the president had been calling for its successful continuation after restoration of democracy in the country late last year.
He had sent a letter to all the provinces to implement the system in letter and spirit after reports that it had been put on the back burner and there was a clash of interests between the district governments on one hand and the MNAs and MPAs on the other regarding development activities in their respective constituencies.