PESHAWAR, Aug 12 The NWFP government has decided to revive the local government system given by Gen Ziaul Haq in 1979 in place of the one that the last dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf introduced in 2001.

An official confirmed to Dawn here on Wednesday that everything was ready to reintroduce municipal corporations and district councils of the 1980s and the authorities were just awaiting the president's assent to dismantle the system exiting under the Local Government Ordinance of 2001.

A draft Local Government Act prepared by the NWFP government is already lying with the president for endorsement. The draft law proposes drastically clipping the powers of elected representatives and strengthening the bureaucracy.

As per the draft law, the official said, rural and urban divide would be revived, as the provincial capital would have two different setups -- municipal corporation and district council.

Both the municipal corporation and district council in Peshawar would comprise general members to be elected through direct election on adult franchise and joint electorate. The number of its members would be notified by the government, the official said.

The municipal corporation, which will comprise urban areas, will be responsible for sanitation of the municipality, birth and death registration, water supply, drainage, private markets, slaughterhouses, education, public safety, municipality planning, building control, streetlights and traffic regulation.

Similarly, the major functions of the district council, consisting of rural areas, would be public works, health, education, agricultural development, economic welfare, drainage, livestock and dairy development, environmental protection and traffic control, the official maintained.

The provincial government, he said, was also working out a strategy for the transitional period, when the existing local bodies would be abolished and administrators appointed, which is expected on Aug 14.

He said since nothing was clear about the future local bodies system yet, the provincial government was also considering different options to handle the local administration during the transitional phase.

Regarding appointment of administrators to replace nazims, the official said one option was to delegate the powers of administrator to the incumbent district coordination officer for the whole district, but it was turned down because some circles believed it would not be possible for a single person to handle the affairs of the district government and four town councils.

The second option currently under review, he said, was to appoint three administrators in Peshawar, as the DCO would be the overall administrator for the district, and there would be an administrator for town councils I and III, which would be part of the proposed municipal corporation.

Similarly, Town II and IV would form the district council and there would a separate administrator for these areas, the official said.