Multan attains status of metropolitan city

Status requires population to be 2.5million or above

MULTAN: Multan has attained the status of a metropolitan city after Deputy Commissioner Amir Khatak finalised initial demarcation recommendations to meet legal requirements under the Local Government Act 2019.

This was stated by Local government Director Arshad Gopang as he spoke to APP on Thursday.

Gopang, who heads the local government department of Multan division, said all deputy commissioners of the division, including Multan, Vehari, Lodhran and Khanewal, had finalised their initial recommendations for the demarcation of respective cities, towns and districts. He added reports to this effect had been received by his office.

Multan is now a metropolitan and standing orders of the provincial government dictate that nine divisional headquarters in Punjab will be given the same status, Gopang said. He added the number of urban union councils in Multan was increased from 68 to 85-90. The status of a metropolitan requires the population of a city to be 2.5million or above.

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Gopang said the process would be completed after November 2, the last date of receiving objections against the initial demarcations finalised by the deputy commissioners. The metropolitan status for Multan would mean the city would have a mayor and its funds would be increased.

He said around 14-15 new union councils had been added to the urban area of Multan, such as the area around Bahauddin Zakariya University, where urban settlements and business is now flourishing.

The urbanised suburban areas of Multan had been included which means that these areas would now be covered by the Solid Waste Management Company for cleanliness, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2019.