Local bodies: K-P minister faults resource crunch for poll delay

Nevertheless, Sirajul Haq says local bodies will be installed by June 2014.

ISLAMABAD:

Senior provincial minister Sirajul Haq on Sunday blamed a severe resource crunch in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for the delay in local bodies’ elections.

By June 2014 the province’s new local bodies will be installed, Sirajul Haq told The Express Tribune. But it is not clear how this will happen, especially since the K-P government has yet to announce a date for the polls.

Elaborating the financial implications of the rebirth of local bodies’ institutions after a gap of years, Siraj said huge funds were required to meet the financial needs of the future LB system. According to him, the provincial authorities also lack funds for election expenditures.

The minister did not reveal the exact cost of setting up local bodies in K-P.



“The K-P has allocated Rs1 billion for the election expenditure out of its own financial resources. However, the federal government will contribute 50% of the total amount of the election expenditures,” Sirajul Haq said.

The minister, who also heads the provincial finance department, said his government had requested the federal government to share 90% financial burden of the LB polls. “But it agreed only to 50% contribution,” he added.

About the future annual expenditures of the local governments, Sirajul Haq said 35% of those funds would be generated through taxation to be levied by the new civic institutions in their annual budgets.

Billions of rupees are required for holding local bodies’ elections and installing district governments, according to a senior official in the provincial finance department.

“However, the money is not available in the current fiscal budget 2013-14  of the province and funds will be allocated for the local bodies’ institutions in the next 2014-15 budget,” he added.

Similar is the situation with the government of Balochistan as its chief minister, Dr Abdul Malik, told The Express Tribune last week. He had said his government had Rs6 billion in its kitty for the local bodies in the province.

“We will have to approach the federal government for the rest of the financial resources, if my government cannot manage to meet the total financial requirements,” he said.

Shortage of funds for the restoration of the local bodies’ institution is a common issue for each of the provincial governments at this stage, a highly placed official in the finance ministry said on the condition of anonymity.

“Since none of the provincial governments had any plans to hold local bodies’ elections in their respective provinces, they had not allocated funds for them in their annual budgets for 2013-14,” the official said explaining the delay.

Billions of rupees would be needed for salaries and other perks and privileges including vehicles, residences of the future mayors, chairmen, deputy chairmen and councillors of municipal, districts and union councils annually, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2013.