PESHAWAR: Fulfilling a legal requirement, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Friday gave the go-ahead for the formation of 25 tehsil governments in the province’s seven merged tribal districts to provide the residents with municipal facilities.

The cabinet met here with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.

The tehsil governments will be established at sub-divisional level of tribal districts under the Local Government Act, 2013, which the government drastically amended recently.

The LG elections will be held in the settled and merged districts within 90 days after the completion of the existing local governments’ tenure at the end of August.

After the introduction of the new LG system, the residents of tribal districts will have municipal services like collection and disposal of solid waste, water and sanitation services, and streetlights, said a statement issued here by the local government department.

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“The government is committed to mainstreaming tribal districts and providing basic municipal services across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said local government minister Shahram Khan Tarakai in a statement.

The tehsil governments will be established in Upper Kurram, Lower Kurram and Central Kurram areas of Kurram district, Miramshah, Mirali and Razmak areas in North Waziristan district, Khar and Nawagai areas of Bajaur district, Wana, Sarwakai and Ladda areas of South Waziristan district, Jamrud, Landi Kotal and Bara areas of Khyber district, Dara Adamkhel area of Kohat district, Upper Mohmand, Lower Mohmand and Baizai areas of Mohmand district, Upper Orakzai and Lower Orakzai areas of Orakzai district, Jandola area of Tank, Bettani area of Lakki Marat district, Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan district, Wazir area of Bannu district and Hassankhel area of Peshawar district.

The local government department has already notified two working groups for framing rules of business for tehsil governments and village and neighbourhood councils.

It has geared up its activities for the preparation of the upcoming local government elections to be held in the province but for the first time in tribal districts likely in Dec this year, read the statement.

The process of delimitation for 688 village councils and 74 neighbourhood councils has already completed in the merged districts as there would be two tiers of the local governments including tehsil and village and neighbourhood governments in the new system.

“After the cabinet’s approval, we have to start work on the establishment of tehsil governments,” a senior official of the local government department told Dawn.

He said besides providing municipal facilities, the establishment of tehsil governments would also offer many employment opportunities to residents.

Under the Local Government Act, the government gives away 30 percent of the development funds to districts, which are to use them through tehsil and village and neighbourhood governments.

The official said 30 percent of the devolved funds would be over and above of the Rs100 billion per annum allocation from Rs1 trillion tribal decade strategy.

The cabinet also approved the signing of MoU between the federal and provincial government on shared financial responsibilities for observing fiscal discipline and stabilisation.

The major purpose of the MoU is to ensure fiscal consolidation and financial stability, synergising revenue mobilisation initiatives, protection of social spending and improvement in the ease of doing business to put the country on a path of sustainable growth.

The cabinet approved four non-governmental members for the Institute Management Committee of Zamung Kor, while the name of Dr Riffat Sardar was also approved as the chairperson for KP Commission on the Status of Women.

The chief minister directed the district administrations to check artificial price hike by conducting daily visits to auction places and markets.

He ordered strict action against profiteers and said reports of action should be sent to his office on a regular basis.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2019