KARACHI, Oct 6: The chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau, Tanveer Naqvi, on Saturday, asked the District and Taluka Nazims to play leadership roles and give a vision to the people.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day orientation seminar for District/City/Taluka/Town Nazims at the National Institute of Public Administration, the NRB chief advised the Nazims to ensure that people should adopt positive tendencies.

“You have to change the negative thoughts of the people and guide them to adopt new and constructive thoughts,” he remarked.

“When positive and constructive thoughts emerge among people, society would ultimately progress,” he added.

The role of leadership is to provide vision and guidance to society, while the management’s function is to implement the vision of leaders.

He asked the Nazims to prepare practicable and implementable plans and ensure that the management implemented them accordingly.

“We have provided a leadership with authority and power,” he remarked.

In the old system of governance, the role of leadership and management was mixed, which created problems. Now, management is being separated from leadership.

He said that the main purpose of change in the old system is to solve people’s problems at the grass roots level.

Mr Naqvi pointed out that there are five main principles of the district government: devolution of political powers, decentralization of administrative authority, de-concentration of management functions, distribution of resources and transfer of powers at the lower level.

Nazims are now administrative and executive heads of their respective areas and a balance has been kept between leadership and administration.

“We have provided an enabling environment for dedicated and sincere Nazims,” he said.

“The system, on the one hand, provides Nazims good powers and independence to work, while on the other, it prohibits them from doing bad work,” he added.

The NRB chief said that under the new system, more city district governments would be made. Initially, 10 to 12 cities were identified for district city governments, but later it was decided to make the capital cities as district governments in the initial phase. Gradually, city district governments would be installed in other cities.

He hoped that Taluka and small towns would be developed in future and would be converted into cities.

For this purpose, he said that the offices of physical planning and town planning have been set up at the Taluka level.

To solve financial problems, the NRB chief said that the system of provincial finance award is being evolved.

Finance system is essential for decentralization. It is being ensured that revenues generating from a particular area are spent on that area.

The NRB chief said many departments with the same or identical functions have been merged.

Moreover, he said that the powers and functions of deputy commissioners and the police have been decentralized. Now there would be a separate police sector for maintenance of law and order and crime investigation. For prosecution, there would be a separate department, he added.

Likewise, he said, changes are also being made in the judicial system.

During the two-day seminar, the participants would be briefed about working of the new system. The NRB experts in various fields would give presentations.

The NRB chief would preside over the concluding session of the seminar on Monday, in which he would give replies to various questions.

Director General (Consultant), NRB, Mohammed Naeemul Haq, highlighted different levels of administration at District, Town, Taluka, Union and village level.

After a brief break, Consultant NRB, Nazar Mohammed Memon, also addressed the participants on the topic of monitoring system and answered questions from participants.

Consultant NRB, Danial Aziz while speaking on the topic of Citizen Community Boards, answered various queries by Nazims.

The inaugural session was attended, among others, by the provincial local government minister, Dewan Muhammed Yousuf Farooqui; chief secretary, Javed Ashraf Hussain and other officials of the NRB chairman’s team.—APP/PPI