Punjab govt notifies officers’ posts for 455 LGs

Punjab inches towards implementing new LG system

LAHORE:

Following the provincial cabinet’s decision, the local government and community development (LG&CD) department has revised the Schedule of Establishment (SoE) for notifying officers’ posts of 455 local governments constituted under the Punjab Local Government Act 2019.

The department has also done apportionment of posts of chief officers among three services notified previously. Posts of officers in the Punjab Local Government Board, the Directorate General of Inspections and Monitoring and LG&CD department have been notified with immediate effect.

As per the notification, in category-A local governments have been divided into three broad sub-categories depending on population.

For A-I sub-category of metropolitan corporation – having a population of 10 million and more – a total of 149 officers’ posts have been notified. Similarly, for three A-II sub-category metropolitan corporations – having a population of over two million – 72 officers’ posts have been notified, while for five A-III sub-category of metropolitan corporations having less than two million population 37 officers’ posts have been notified.

For eight municipal corporations having a population of more than 400,000, the department has notified 30 officers’ posts in B-I sub-category. Similarly, for eight B-II sub-category municipal corporations having a population of less than 400,000 a total of 22 posts have been approved.

For six municipal committees of district headquarters having a population of over 150,000, a total of 16 officers’ posts have been notified under sub-category C-I.

The notification showed that for 10 municipal committees of district headquarters having a population less than 150,000, 15 posts have been approved under C-II sub-category. Similarly, for eight municipal committees at tehsil headquarters and other cities having a population of over 150,000, total 15 posts have been notified under C-III sub-category.

The department has notified 11 officers’ posts for 22 municipal committees having a population less than 150,000 and more than 100,000 under sub-category C-IV.

The department has also notified officers’ posts for smaller local governments through the notification.

The department has also notified 33 officers’ posts for Punjab Local Government Board and 20 for the Directorate General of I&M.

The notification highlights that the LG&CD department has notified one post for building inspector (BS-14) in each town committee.

However, no post of assistant municipal officer (planning, architecture) has been provided in any of the town committees across the province. It showed that the functions of planning in the town committees will be performed by an assistant municipal officer, deputy municipal officer, municipal officer, metropolitan officer (planning and architecture) of the metropolitan corporation, municipal corporation or municipal committee, as the case may be.

One post of senior sub-engineer (BS-16) has been provided in each town committee under sub-category D-1 and one post of sub-engineer (BS-14) has been approved in each town committee under sub-category D-II. However, no post of assistant municipal officer (infrastructure and services) has been provided in any of the town committees in Punjab in the SoE.

The functions of infrastructure and services in the town committees shall be performed by the deputy tehsil officer (infrastructure & services) or assistant tehsil officer (infrastructure and services) of the tehsil council with the help of senior sub-engineers and sub-engineers concerned.

Last week, the Punjab government had formally requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce a schedule for holding local government elections in the province.

A local government elections committee, led by Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja held a meeting with the chief election commissioner and asked for local government elections’ schedule under Punjab Village Panchayat and Neighbourhood Councils’ Act 2019.

The Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department had also expressed its readiness to hold elections in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2020.