Waiting for money: Notification for LG rules of business expected soon

Decision awaited on salaries for nazims after late-night meeting

PESHAWAR:

A meeting that went well into Saturday night is expected to result in the notification of rules of business for the newly-elected local government.

“Provincial government high-ups, including cabinet members, were holding a meeting at Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad Saturday night,” an official privy to the matter told The Express Tribune. “Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan briefed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan on the local government system and the proposed terms of reference (ToR) for the workings of the LG government set-up.”

When asked over the phone, Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said confirmed the meeting was still in session and he was on his way to Islamabad from Lahore to attend it. “I don’t know much about the agenda of the meeting as I just got to know about the time and venue over the phone.”

The rules of governance are needed to decide salaries and other perks for nazims and naib nazims in the three tiers of the LG system. Currently, such guidelines are not part of the LG legislation which has already become a matter of concern for the representatives. Councillors are not satisfied with the pace at which the LG department is operating, while councillors—not just nazims and naib nazims—are also demanding monthly salaries.

“I am not satisfied with the speed at which the government is proceeding,” said Manzoor Ali, a PTI activist and a youth councillor from Tehkal.

“We asked the returning officer about salaries and offices many times but he would only smile in reply – we still don’t have an office,” he said. “We have heard the district nazims would be given perks equivalent to those given to a grade-19 officer while the tehsil and town nazims would have privileges equivalent to those of a grade-18 officer.” Ali added, “Nazims of villages and neighbourhoods would be given perks equal to those of a grade-16 officer.”

However, officials of the LG department dealing with the salaries and other privileges for the nazims say the government cannot pay monthly salaries to all councillors. “Only nazims and naib nazims would be provided monthly salaries like those during the previous LG government,” said an official seeking anonymity. “The councillors can’t be given monthly salaries,” he said.

“If you start giving salaries to every councillor, then you would not have any money to spend on, let’s say, sanitation lines or the development side,” the official. He was referring to the number of councillors which stands at more than 40,000.

When asked about the salaries of nazims and naib nazims, Local Government Focal Person Ghulam Hussain said salaries for districts, tehsils and towns have been proposed in the rules of business, while, the government is thinking about fixing salaries for the nazims and naib nazims of village and neighbourhood councils. “I don’t know the exact amount because the TORs have not yet been approved by the chief minister.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2015.