Dhamial, Potohar made municipalities in Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI: Two new municipal committees have been formed in Rawalpindi after delimitations were revised for elections under new local bodies system. The government has released details about municipal committees of Dhamial and Potohar along with new delimitations of neighbourhood councils. Dhamial will have a population of 387,020 and Potohar will have 255,844 residents in it.  The areas falling in 46 neighbourhood councils and election procedure on reserved seats have also been devised. The garrison city will have a total of 40 general, eight women, six labours and two minority councillors. Under the new system, the mayor will head the Metropolitan Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi while the total population for the city’s corporation has been declared as 135,768,6. Some circles of Shakaryal and Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) have been merged in new neighbourhood councils. The elections for lord mayor and reserved seats will be held on a political basis through secret ballot method. The district council system has been abolished in the new system and it has been replaced by five institutions including Metropolitan Corporation, Municipal Corporation, Municipal Committee, Town Committee and Tehsil Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2019.