PESHAWAR, July 29: The ANP-led coalition government in NWFP has recommended the revival of the local bodies system of 1979, introduced by General Ziaul Haq, because what it believes can be managed in a ‘comfortable’ way.
Proposal to this effect is part of a report and recommendations on rationalising local governments in the province which the provincial government is forwarding to the centre to be included in the amendments to the local bodies system, put in place by the President Pervez Musharraf in 2001.
Report and recommendations are prepared by a cabinet committee headed by Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who also holds the portfolio of Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RD).
Apart from other provincial ministers, proposals of two former provincial chief secretaries Khalid Aziz and Azam Khan are also included in the reports as both are members of the committee.
According to the report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the local government system in its present form has failed to deliver owing to structural defects and institutional weaknesses.
“Any effort to reform the system is not going to redeem the situation and arrest the deteriorating standards of service delivery and administrative drift,” the report maintained.
The Local Government Ordinance, 2001, it said, had been aimed at weakening the authority of the federating units and resulted in erosion of executive authority of the government and paralysing the state institutions.
It said that devolution of power plan was implemented by the federal government without taking the provinces into confidence, alienating the provinces from the reform process. Similarly, the existing system was in conflict with the concept of provincial autonomy given in the 1973 Constitution, the report added.
The committee recommended restoration of local council institutions as envisaged in the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 1979, adding it would bring local government institutions in focus and place them in a comfortable situation of management.
NWFP Local Ordinance, 1979, was introduced by the military regime of late General Ziaul Haq, which remained in place till 1991.
Likewise, the committee also recommended revival of executive magistracy to deal with the issues of enforcement, adding it would provide an institutional setup for addressing the issues adversely affecting the executive authority of the government and protecting the interest of general public.
The committee also favoured strengthening the newly created institution of Regional Coordination Offices (RCOs) to ensure expeditious disposal of government business for ‘welfare’ of the people.
The NWFP government has recently established RCOs at five regional bases on the pattern of defunct commissioner offices. The officers appointed as RCOs have been bestowed with sweeping administrative powers virtually reviving the old commissioner system in the province.
The report also contains the recommendations of a sub-committee, which reviewed the shortcomings of the existing local bodies system. The sub-committee recommended abolition of the office of ‘naib nazims’ from the three tiers of local government.
It also recommended reducing the number of members of union council to 7 from the existing 13. Similarly, it suggested a municipal council should have a maximum of 11 members and three union councils should constitute an electoral ward to send one member to the zilla council.
The sub-committee recommended reducing the groups of offices in the district government to five from12.