Fate of two newly-formed districts in doldrums

Bureaucratic delays mar functioning of Murree and Talagang districts

RAWALPINDI:

The future of the districts of Murree and Talagang, recently established by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the Rawalpindi division, appears to be in the doldrums.

Sources said only three district officers, a deputy commissioner, a DPO and a district judge have been appointed in both the newly formed districts.

According to sources, the option of removal of both districts has been kept open as their status will be lost in case of a change of government or dissolution of the Punjab Assembly.

According to the administrative experts, the status of both the new districts will remain till June 30, 2023. However, these districts have not been granted funds to meet their expenses. Even their new official account could not be opened.

According to sources, the ministry of local government is also facing serious difficulties in delimiting new constituencies and boundaries.

So far these two new districts have not been officially included in the new official gazette and in addition to this, the names of these new districts have not yet been included in any official notification list.

Even today, the salaries of the police officers and staff of all the public departments of the Murree district are being paid from the district account office, Rawalpindi and the salaries of the employees of Talagang district are being paid from district Chakwal.

Further, the distribution of assets, vehicles and employees of the new districts has not been started yet.

Neither have the offices of Murree Development Authority, District Education, District Health Authorities, Rescue 1122, Civil Defence, Municipalities and District Account Offices been established nor their officers have been appointed yet.

The tenders for the development schemes of the four tehsils of both Murree and Talagang districts are also being issued from the Rawalpindi and Chakwal districts.

Murree is still essentially being run by the Rawalpindi deputy commissioner while the system of Talagang district is still under the control of Chakwal DC.

Rawalpindi Tehsil of Rawalpindi District has been bifurcated into three tehsils including City, Cantt and Saddar. New Tehsildars of these three tehsils have been appointed. However, their proper delimitation has not yet been carried out.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2023.