From next month: Punjab finally braces for local governance

Major changes expected across province as local representatives take office

LAHORE: After Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh, Punjab will finally have its local government system up and running in January, 2017 as a year-long local bodies election exercise concludes on December 31 with mayors and deputy mayors taking oath of their offices.

On Saturday, the Punjab government informed all district coordination officers (DCOs) to remove executive district officers (EDO) for finance and planning and community development, and district officers (DO) for human resource management (HRM) positions once the new system comes in place from next month.

The government will appoint additional deputy commissioners for finance, general and headquarters in their place to perform provincial government functions.

As per the new organogram indicated by the Local Government and Community Development Department notification, the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation will have a BS19/BS20 chief officer, a deputy chief officer of BS19/BS18, five metropolitan officers of BS19 for finance, infrastructure, services, planning and municipal regulations.

In municipal corporations of Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala, a BS19 official will be appointed as the chief officer in each corporation. A BS18 deputy chief officer and BS19 municipal officers will be appointed for finance and infrastructure departments of the corporation. BS18 municipal officers will be appointed for services and BS19/BS18 for planning and regulations in each corporation.

In Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Sialkot, Murree and Gujrat’s municipal corporations, chief officers of BS19/BS18, BS18 municipal officer for finance, infrastructure and regulations portfolios will be appointed. BS19/BS18 officers will work on municipal officer services and BS18/BS17 on planning position.

The municipal committees in district headquarters will have BS18 chief officers and BS17 municipal officers for finance, infrastructure, services, regulations and planning. BS17 officers will perform same functions in the tehsil headquarters.

At non-tehsil headquarters level, each municipal committee will have BS17/BS16 chief officer, BS16 municipal officers for finance, engineering and regulations and BS14 building inspectors.

In district councils of Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala, the government will appoint BS19/BS18 chief officer and BS18 district officers finance, municipal infrastructure and services, municipal regulations and planning.

All district councils in district headquarters will have BS18 chief officers, BS17 district officers for finance, municipal regulations and planning. BS18/BS17 officer will perform as district officers for municipal infrastructure and services.

In metropolitan and municipal corporations’ union councils, BS11 secretaries will serve in community development and municipal services, BS7 as union committee secretaries and naib qasids and chowkidars in BS-1 will be appointed.

In rural union councils, BS11 secretaries will serve in community development and municipal services and naib qasids and chowkidars in BS-1 will be inducted.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2016.