Devolving administrative, financial powers at grassroots level

Nazims blow hot and cold about Imran decision

PESHAWAR: The reforms agenda recently unveiled by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head Imran Khan seems to be another experiment of the provincial government to expedite the stalled development process in the province.

The district nazims are welcoming the announcement, but are uncertain of its implementation. Besides, the contradiction in the statement of Imran Khan put question mark on the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s sincerity to devolve the administrative and financial powers to the grassroots level.

Imran Khan in his recent press conference said proudly that all the development funds amounting to Rs33 billion would be utilized through the local governments and the provincial lawmakers’ discretionary funds would be abolished.

However, he should have been aware that the total outlay of development budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is Rs161 billion, not Rs33billion. The provincial government had decided to allocate 30 percent of the development budget to the district governments and utilize the rest through ministers, members of the provincial assembly and others. The Rs33 billion were given to the district governments under the same formula.

Some reports suggested that the decision of utilizing more funds through the district governments was taken in view of the poor and lethargic development process in the province during the last three years. Most of the development funds got lapsed and even the projects started by the previous Awami National Party-Pakistan People’s Party coalition government could not be completed.

A senior officer termed the decision as the election strategy of the parties forming the provincial government. He said the people of the province were not satisfied with the pace of development pursued by the current government.

“The recent decision is aimed at regaining public support by carrying out development projects at the local level. Also, the over 40,000 elected representatives in the local governments would be appeased after getting funds. They will certainly prove instrumental in getting votes in the next general election,” he remarked.

The district nazims welcomed the announcement, but they were uncertain about its implementation.“The provincial government could not implement the Local Government Act 2013 in three years. How is it possible for it to shift the financial powers to the local governments now?” asked Himayatullah Mayar, Mardan district nazim.

He said the announcement seemed a mere slogan as the members of provincial assembly had already been given hefty funds. He said the development funds released to the entire Mardan district totalled Rs700 million while each MPA belonging to the ruling PTI was given over Rs one billion.

He said if the PTI leadership and the provincial government were sincere in implementing the announcement, they should immediately stop the use of development funds by the provincial assembly members and work out a proper mechanism for releasing the funds to the district governments.

“Even today the tenders worth millions of rupees for different projects floated by three PTI MPAs of my district were opened in their presence. How can they say that the discretionary funds of provincial lawmakers have been abolished and all the development works would be carried out through the district and local governments?” Himayatullah Mayar said.

He said he didn’t doubt the sincerity of Imran Khan but strongly believed that a wrong picture of what is actually done on the ground in the province was being provided to the PTI chairman.

District nazim of Shangla, Niaz Ahmad Khan, who also leads the provincial association of district nazims, welcomed the announcement by Imran Khan and called for its early implementation.

He too was not quite optimistic about full implementation of the announcement. “Let me tell you that a PTI MPA, who hails from Shangla but was elected from Peshawar, inaugurated a road in his native district. This is a negation of the claim made by Imran Khan,” he said, while referring to Shaukat Yousafzai without mentioning his name.

Niaz Ahmad was of the opinion that the local government system remained paralyzed for more than a year after the election. He said it was due to the active struggle of nazims that forced the PTI leadership to announce the ‘reform agenda.’

He said no financial and administrative powers had been given to them so far. “Now that the announcement has been made, we would appreciate it as ‘better late than never’ but its implementation should be ensured,” he stressed.

A Jamaat-e-Islami councillor Khalid Waqas Chamkani in Peshawar District Council was also not sure about the implementation of the announcement. “The way we spent the past one year, we have the least expectations from the provincial government,” he added.

He said meagre funds not enough even for a very small project had been given to members of the district council. He also expressed concern about the capacity of the elected representatives of the local governments by pointing out that most didn’t even know about their powers.Khalid Waqas Chamkani also stressed the need for fair distribution of powers and funds among member of district councils.