QUETTA: The chairmen of district and union councils will cease to work on Sunday as the five-year term of local bodies in Balochistan comes to an end. Fresh elections to the city, district and union councils will be announced next month.

A notification issued here on Saturday said that all local government institutions would be considered dissolved from Sunday and powers of all mayors, deputy mayors of municipal corporations and chairmen of district and union councils would cease with the dissolution.

Balochistan was the first province to hold local bodies’ elections in December 2014 on the orders of the Supreme Court. “Local bodies’ institutions have completed their five-year term and new elections would be announced after delimitation of their constituencies,” a senior official of the local government department said.

The Election Commission of Pak­is­tan has announced conducting delimitation of local constituencies in view of national census conducted in March 2017. New elections are expected in August 2019.

Although the local bodies have completed their term, the dispute between local bodies’ institutions and the provincial government continued on the issue of devolution of powers up to the union council level and allocation of funds for uplift schemes.

Quetta Mayor Dr Kaleemullah and chairmen and district and union councils had repeatedly accused the MPAs and bureaucracy for creating hurdles in the devolution of powers and allocation of funds.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2019