Empty pockets: LG councillors decry lack of funding

Limited authority granted to neighbourhood, village LG members

PESHAWAR: General councillor Khurshid Khan of Shahi Bagh neighbourhood, Council-21, said on Wednesday that there was no clause in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 to fill the evacuated seat of a council chairman in the middle of a term.

Another general councillor, from the same neighbourhood, reported the chairman had gone to a foreign country and left the position vacant. “We are confused as to who will take charge since the chairman is no longer available,” the councillor said. He added the LG Act 2013 was not helpful in this situation.

Meanwhile, the K-P government allocated 30% of development budget to fund LG departments in its annual budget report. However, LG members demanded an allocation for the non-development budget to fund office rent, salaries and office items for village and neighbourhood councils. Chairman Khalid Khan Yousafzai of Bijli Ghar union council in Mardan told The Express Tribune that they have been paying rent for the office out of their own pocket and used assets and liabilities from the previous LG union council office. According to the chairman, “The K-P government should restore the previous set-up if they cannot compensate village and neighbourhood councillors.”



“We are working like a rubber stamp,” said chairman Yousafzai, adding that they have only been authorised to issue birth and death certificates. “The government has failed to fulfil its promise of hiring secretaries and staff for council offices.”

A senior member of the LG Act 2013 Committee and Provincial naib ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Iqbal Khalil endorsed the flaws in the LG constitution and said a vacant chairman position would be transferred to a member who secured second position in the union council during elections. Khalil explained that at least seven councillors were elected from each village and neighbourhood councils so the position will not remain vacant.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2015.