LAHORE: The city is set to gain five new tehsils in the coming days, bringing the total to 10, while the previous plans to divide the city into two or three districts have been shelved, Dawn has learnt.

According to official sources, a summary seeking approval from Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has been sent. The existing tehsils include Raiwind, Model Town, Shalimar, Cantt, and City. The proposed new tehsils are Allama Iqbal, Nishtar, Saddar, Wagah, and Ravi.

As per a document, Allama Iqbal tehsil will encompass the revenue circles of Chuhng, Niaz Baig, and Pandoki. Nishtar tehsil will include Kahna and Kamahan circles. Saddar tehsil will cover Barki, Heir, and Jahman, while Wagah tehsil will comprise Jallo, Bhaseen, and Lakhudair. Ravi tehsil will be formed with Shahdra, Naulakha, and Lahore Khas circles.

Following the creation of these new tehsils, the existing tehsils will be adjusted as follows: Raiwind will include Raiwind, Paji, Manga, and Maraka; Model Town will include Ichhra and Model Town; Cantt will include Lahore Cantt and Bhangali; Shalimar will include Baghbanpura and Fatehgarh; and City will include Sanda and Nawankot.

“It was the need of the hour since the existing tehsils were already overburdened,” said an official, adding that the creation of new tehsils would improve service delivery to the public.

Another official source indicated that the decision to create five new tehsils confirms that the government has no plans to divide Lahore into more districts, similar to the model in Karachi.

“Previously, efforts were made to split Lahore into a couple of districts, but these proposals did not mature due to administrative, financial, and political issues,” the official stated, requesting anonymity.

Earlier, in January last year, the government had deferred various plans to divide Lahore into various districts.

The initial plan was introduced in 2017 under which Lahore was to be divided into four districts. The plan was devised after a massive increase in the city district’s population that, at that time, had reached around 10.1m. Initially, in this regard, a committee, headed by the then Lahore commissioner, was also formed and it had reached the consensus to go ahead with the plan since Lahore, according to the committee members, had become difficult to manage with the existing administrative and functional structure due to increasing population with massive horizontal growth of the city.

With the lapse of time, uncertain political situations started developing in 2017 and the proposal was dropped. However, in 2019, the proposal was revived with a suggestion to reduce the number of districts from four to three. In 2020, another proposal, apparently more viable, was floated. According to the then new proposal, Lahore was to be divided into two districts. This proposal was finally declared as viable in a meeting on Dec 3, 2020.

It suggested bifurcation of Lahore into City and Saddar districts with creation of five new tehsils — Ferozewala, Thokar Niaz Baig, Kahna, Kot Abdul Malik and Harbanspura — in the two proposed districts.

The then Lahore DC had also asked to expedite the preparation of a PC-2 for carrying out impact assessment study for geographic and social/cultural cohesion by hiring consultancy services under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules with a direction to retain the historical character of the city during the division.

A lot of work was done on the proposal of 2020 but later, it slowed down due to lack of political will and other administrative and functional issues.

When Parvez Elahi became the chief minister, he also ordered the authorities to revive the proposal with a direction to divide Lahore into three districts (the proposal of 2019). He also directed the authorities to also work on creation of some more districts in Punjab, including Wazirabad.

And finally he announced to divide Lahore into three districts. However, there was no suggestion as to what would be the third district. That proposal was also deferred at a later stage.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024