LAHORE, Oct 27: Defunct divisions and divisional commissioners were finally restored in Punjab on Monday after seven years of their abolition.

With them the provincial government also introduced the office of additional commissioners, intending to re-establish divisional offices of all important departments abolished at the time of introduction of the local government system under the Local Government Ordinance 2001.

The divisional commissioners were restored after amending the Land Revenue Act, 1967. But they have been given no powers under the same law. The additional commissioners are also without any authority so far. “They have no powers of the law under which they have been re-created,” a source remarked.

A senior official however said the commissioners were not powerless. They were being given many functions, making them more powerful than those working at the time of the abolition of the post.

“We are not giving them any power of the EDO Revenue because this cannot be done under the local government ordinance. Instead we plan to give appellate authority of the Board of Revenue to the commissioners,” the official said.

The posts of commissioners and additional commissioners will be filled after some time as the government is yet to select officials for them.

But it was stated that the commissioners of divisions comprising five city districts of Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad would be in BS-21. Those of the remaining would be in BS-20.

Similarly, the additional commissioners of all the divisions would be one grade junior to the commissioners.

The PML--N government plan to reintroduce the commissioners through an ordinance amending the land revenue act was being hampered because of the objections by Governor Salmaan Taseer. He finally gave the conditional permission for the promulgation of the ordinance on Saturday.

The Punjab government on Monday promulgated the ordinance amending its sections 5, 8, and 9. It also issued a notification dividing the province into eight divisions.

The ordinance does not provide for any powers of the commissioners under it. But it says that the government may assign any functions to the commissioners as it deems appropriate. It also says that the additional commissioners introduced under Section 9 shall work under the supervision of the commissioners, also assigning no authority to them.

A senior provincial secretary contested the notion that the commissioners were powerless. They would basically ensure the implementation of the provincial government policy in districts besides monitoring their functions, he said.

They were also being assigned important functions like sanctioning development schemes up to Rs100 million, writing annual confidential reports of the anti-corruption establishment functionaries and supervision of tertiary medical institutions. It was also being considered to authorize them transfer and posting of officials of BS-18 in districts.

He said some of the functions would be notified by the Planning and Development Board and the Finance Department whereas many would automatically be assumed by the commissioners. “We are going to devolve some functions of the chief minister and the chief secretary to the commissioners for better management,” he said.

The secretary said because of the constitutional protection to the LGO 2001, the government was not going to transfer any powers of the EDO Revenue to the commissioners. But they were going to have the powers of the BoR member.

The additional commissioners were not also powerless. They would share responsibilities of the commissioners, he said.

At the time of abolition of the post, the divisional commissioners were revenue officers, having all appellate powers against the decisions of the district collectors and in some instances of assistant collectors.