Devolving power: ‘Autonomous village councils under new LG system'

Minister says elections to be held on party-basis at tehsil and district council levels only.

PESHAWAR:

Under the new local government setup, elections in village councils would be held on non-party basis and on party-basis at tehsil and district council levels.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Local Government (LG) and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan approved these recommendations during a meeting of the LG working group on Friday. Various decisions pertaining to the new system in the province were also approved in the meeting.

Village councils would be autonomous and one of the strongest units in the LG system, Khan told journalists at the Civil Secretariat after the meeting. “They (village councils) will monitor public sector projects including health, education, police, revenue and other departments,” he added.

Khan informed the village council will report to tehsil and district councils. The district council head will be the chairman of the village council while the tehsil council head would serve as vice chairman.

“The provincial government will write to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for delimitation because it is ready to hold local body elections. However, it will take a month’s time due to some complications,” said the minister, adding steps will be taken after the government formulates legislation.

“In the election, women will be given 33% representation, while 5% each would be given to the youth and non-Muslims,” informed the minister.

Khan said the chief minister will select the chairman of the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC) and District Development Committee while the members of DDAC would include the district’s MPA along with the tehsil and district council chairmen. “Coalition partners would select chairmen of district and tehsil councils,” he added.

“We are working round the clock to hold LG elections by the end of October,” said Khan, adding the LG draft was discussed with coalition partners before being sent to the cabinet for final approval.

“It was decided to devolve powers to grassroots level in real terms and to strengthen the village council. The council will supervise the police committee, governing body for basic health units (BHU), parents and teachers councils for schools and will have powers to remove encroachments,” he said.

Khan said the new draft will be very similar to the 2001 local government system, but Peshawar will stick to its old system of capital city. Areas on the outskirts of all districts in the province will be called village councils while city areas will be called neighbourhoods.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2013.