ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Friday asked the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) to develop a mechanism for coordination between parliamentarians and elected members of the local governments so that funds were utilised in an efficient manner, integrating the development efforts throughout the country.

He issued this directive during a briefing at the NRB headquarters on different issues, one of the participants of the briefing told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

He directed the NRB to continue the process of consultations and hold joint meetings with federal and provincial government representatives in order to develop a better liaison to ensure good governance in the country.

The prime minister urged the NRB to develop short, medium and long-term plans to overcome the current problems and “failures” in the implementation of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and develop the procedure and criteria for utilization of the Devolution Transition Fund.

He directed the Bureau to bring about necessary changes to make the institution more efficient and effective and said that the NRB needed time to implement its programmes.

About the distribution of development funds among parliamentarians and councillors, the prime minister said: “We are trying to find a solution to all these issues.”

In the briefing that lasted two hours, issues related to the implementation of Devolution Plan and Police Order, 2002, were thoroughly discussed.

The prime minister made it clear that the NRB would continue to work as part of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

He said the Bureau would continue to function as before in close coordination with the federal and provincial governments.

He observed that it was too early to assess the impact of the devolution plan. He, however, expressed the hope that with the passage of time, the system would deliver the goods and better services could be provided to the people at the grassroots level.

About police reforms, the prime minister said there was a need to discuss proposals to make police more loyal, courteous and efficient.

He said the Police Order, 2002, needed to be activated further to extracts full benefits of the police reforms.

Earlier, the NRB chairman, Mr Daniyal Aziz, briefed the prime minister about functions and organizational setup of the NRB.