Nazims elected for Provincial Finance Commission

Local government bodies in K-P to get funds based on formula

PESHAWAR: The election of councillors for the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) has taken Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa one step closer to complete the local government process.

“The PFC came into being [in early 2000s] under the local government act,” Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan told journalists at District Council Hall after the elections on Friday. “Resources will be distributed among the districts according to a formula that considers the population and poverty level of the districts.”

Two members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and one each from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl were elected.

Azizullah Alizai of DI Khan and Niaz Ahmad of Shangla were elected among the district nazims to represent their districts in the PFC. Aslam Hayat Khan from Ghazi tehsil and Azizullah Khan from Serai Naurang got the majority votes among tehsil nazims.

Inayatullah said the K-P government has fulfilled its promises and has devolved power to the grass-roots level. “The distribution of funds will be discussed at the first PFC meeting that will be convened in the coming month.”

Structure and system

The PFC includes four elected members, three secretaries from law, local government and finance departments, one MPA each from treasury and opposition benches. The finance and local government ministers are chairman and co-chairman, respectively.

As per a new formula, four nazims were elected by 23 district and 68 tehsil and town nazims. This is a variation from the previous pattern where two nazims were nominated by the provincial government.

The district and tehsil nazims reached the city early on Friday morning for the polls. Candidates had filed their nomination papers between 10 and 11am at District Council Hall. Thereafter, two representatives from the district nazims were elected between 11am and 12 noon. Similarly, tehsil and town nazims filed nomination papers between 2 and 3pm and two representatives from among them were elected within half an hour.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.