Proposed two-tier LG system to reduce number of councillors by 71pc

PESHAWAR: The proposed two-tier Local Government (LG) model would bring down the number of councillors from 42,000 to 24,500 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This will also serve as a model for the LG system to be introduced in the newly-merged districts in the erstwhile tribal areas in consonance with the tribal traditions. The proposed LG system will be based on the two-tier of the local governance in which the village and neighbourhood councils would remain the basic tier.

According to the document of the proposed plan, the functions and formation of the basic tier would remain unchanged and the elections to these bodies would still be held on non-party basis.

Secretary, Local Government Elections and Rural Development Department, Muhammad Zahir Shah has given a presentation on the proposed new LG system to the political leadership which the government wants to replicate across the country.

The document of the proposed LG system suggests that each Village Council and Neighbourhood Council would compose seven members, including Nazim, Naib Nazim, one general councillor and four others elected on the reserved seats.

However, the mode of election to these councils would remain unchanged as all the members would be elected on non-party basis.

As proposed in the plan, the district tier will be omitted with the transfer of powers and functions to the tehsil level.

The Tehsil Council would be the top tier to provide municipal and social services through the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA).

The Nazim and Naib Nazim of the Village Council and Neighbourhood Council would be members of the respective Tehsil Council while Tehsil Nazim would be elected directly through popular vote on the pattern of mayor.

The two tiers could continue to receive the 30 percent of the total development budget every year and separate grant mechanism would be devised to protect allocations for the municipal and social services at the local level.

The document acknowledges Peshawar as “special and complex” and as a single tehsil metropolis with 4.3 million people where municipal services are provided by Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), Water Supply and Sanitation Peshawar (WSSP), town administration and Cantonment Board.

However, it suggests that the City District in Peshawar would be recomposed in separate urban and rural tehsils while additional area of Hassankhel sub-division would be retained as separate tehsil.

Tehsils in Peshawar would be assigned the same functions as allocated to other tehsils across the province.

The new LG model has also proposed the same LG model for seven newly merged districts of the erstwhile tribal areas where LG elections would be held in 42 tehsils and 19 sub-divisions.

The plan suggests that as an instant impact of the elimination of the district tier and rationalization of the Village Council members would bring down the number of the councillors from the present 42,000 to 24,500 and reduce the financial burden on the public exchequer.

The officials of the Local Government department told The News that they were reviewing the Local Government Act 2013 to align it with the government’s vision of the LG system.

They said that the cabinet sub-committee and working group would carry out detailed working on the proposed LG structure, including its tiers, mode of elections and functional domains.