PESHAWAR: The district nazims on Monday opposed the proposed abolition of the district councils and declared the move a joint conspiracy of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and bureaucracy to stall the devolution of powers to the grassroots level in the province.

They feared that all 20 departments devolved to the district councils under the KP Local Government Act, 2013, would be reclaimed by the government.

The nazims from across the province met here to discuss the government’s decision to do away with the district councils and keep the tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils intact.

The meeting was chaired by KP Local Council Association chairman Himayatullah Mayar and attended by nazims Sahibzada Fasihullah of Upper Dir, Maghfirat Shah of Chitral, Ahmad Ali Shah of Malakand, Mohammad Fahad of Charsadda, Rasool Khan of Lower Dir, Asif Ali Jan of Haripur and others.

Nazims call for restoration of Musharraf’s LG system after necessary changes

Mr Mayar said the abolition of the district councils, the most effective and major tier of local bodies, violated the spirit of Article 140-A of the Constitution, which stated that every province would establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.

“The big question is who will head the 20 departments currently led by the district nazims after the district tier of the local bodies are done away with,” he said.

The nazim said the local government system implemented by military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2001 should be restored after necessary changes as that system was more effective.

“The spirit of the 18th Constitutional Amendment was that the federal department would devolve departments to the provinces, which would devolve its departments to the local governments, but the KP government’s proposed decision will violate that spirit,” he said.

Dir Upper nazim Sahibzada Fasihullah said the bureaucracy had succeeded in its ‘design’ of holding the maximum power in future through end to district councils.

“The problems, which used to be resolved at district level, will now be raised at the provincial level,” he said.

The nazim demanded of the government to incorporate the suggestions of district nazims and the Local Council Association before making changes to the local government system.

Chitral nazim Maghfirat Shah said the people would be the ultimate sufferers of the government’s move to do away with the district tier of the local government system as their problems were resolved at the district level.

“Pakistan can’t be put on the track of development until financial and administrative powers are devolved to grassroots level in letter and spirit,” he said.

The nazim said currently, Pakistan faced serious governance issues and that the only solution to those problems was decentralisation. “We didn’t expect of Prime Minister Imran Khan that he would commit the blunder of allowing the abolition of the district councils,” he said.

The nazim said Imran Khan wanted to devolve the maximum power to local bodies but it was bureaucracy, which had put him off the track time and again.

Malakand nazim Ahmad Ali Shah said it would be the triumph of bureaucracy and provincial government if the district tier of the local bodies was abolished.

“The ministers and secretaries of the government departments want to hold the maximum powers by hook or by crook,” said Mr Shah, who is also the convener of the Local Council Association.

He wondered who the directors of education, health and other departments would be answerable to in absence of district nazims.

The nazims later decided to hold a convention of all district nazims and naib nazims, tehsil nazims and naib nazims and other stakeholders on the matter on Oct 8.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2018