Local Councils Association terms district tier abolition unconstitutional

PESHAWAR: The Local Councils Association (LCA) has informed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of its intention to resist the government decision of doing away with the district tier of the local government as it was a violation of the Constitution.

The LCA executive council members told the Minister for Local Government, Elections and Rural Development Shahram Khan Taraki at a meeting held here on Thursday that the draft amendment was a violation of the Constitution.

The meeting was convened to take the association’s input in the draft bill that would be tabled in the assembly soon. LCA President Himayatullah Mayar told The News that they informed the minister that the provincial governments were bound to devolve political, administrative and financial powers as is enshrined in the Constitution.

Article 140-A of the Constitution says, “Each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.”

Mayar said the draft amendment was leaving a technical flaw in the system by not depriving people of the opportunity to elect representatives to oversee the district administration. “The government team could not convince us when we raised the question of accountability of district administration,” he added.

“There are chief executives at the federal and provincial levels and that is why the LCA demands a chief executive at the district level as the administration at this level needed political oversight,” he added. He criticised the government for seeking input from the LCA, a representative body of the local councils, at a time when the draft had already been finalised. Mayar said that the LCA had been trying for the last six months to give its input but the government ignored them despite their repeated requests.

The LCA would also seek support from political parties for joining their protest against the unconstitutional law, he added. “The LCA would contact political parties to join the protest for saving the district tier that is being abolished to retain powers with the province,” he added.

Mayar said the provinces had been demanding devolution from the Centre but were reluctant to cede powers at the grassroots level. He said abolishing the district tier showed that the province wanted to reverse the devolution process. The draft has been presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan who told the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to finalise the draft within a month and table it at the provincial legislature.

The proposed draft had recommended abolishing the district tier. The new local government would have a two-tier system comprising tehsil and village/neighbourhood (VC/NC) councils.

Tehsil Nazims would be elected through direct vote while nazims of the VC/NCs would be members of the tehsil councils.

The VCs/NCs would have five members in areas without minority population while the areas with minority population would have six members. These councils would have one each worker/peasant, youth and female member and two general members. The tehsil nazim’s election would be held on the party basis while that of VC/NCs on the non-party basis.