PESHAWAR: With less than a month left to the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the relevant authorities have yet to frame rules of business for the functions of the people elected in the process and define their power in the three tiers of local councils.

The official sources told Dawn on Saturday that it was the rules of business, which would define the ‘role and powers of three-tier local government system’ to be introduced through the ongoing local council elections for which polling was scheduled to take place on May 30.

They said all the things were not thoroughly defined in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 and that it was the local government and rural development department’s responsibility to frame rules of business and bylaws under the law for elected people.

Regulations will define role, powers of KP local govts, whose polls are less than a month away

The sources said the local government systems would come into being at district, tehsil and village/neighbourhood levels after the upcoming local body elections were over.

They said the people would elect around 45,000 members of local councils in the province, mostly of village and neighbourhood councils.

The sources said the rural areas had been divided in village councils and urban areas in neighbourhood councils.

According to them, every village/neighbourhood councils will consist of 10 to 15 seats in accordance with the size of population.

Each village and neighbourhood council covers 2,000 to 10,000 people.

An expert on the local government said the local government law introduced in 2001 by the then military government of Pervez Musharraf was more elaborate as it consisted of 250 sections, while the existing law had 123 sections, so the framing of rules and bylaws for the upcoming local government system was very necessary compared to the previous system.

Sub-Section 4 of Section 5 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 states, “Government shall prescribe rules of business for local governments notifying structure and working of local government administration, groups of offices, allocation of business, appointment, posting, promotion and transfer of officers and officials, performance evaluation, channels of communication, coordination of local council business, consultation between offices and incidental matters for smooth and efficient disposal of official business.

The expert said under the new local government system, 13 departments, including education, health, social welfare, sports and culture, revenue and estate, agriculture and livestock ones, would be devolved to districts.

“Now rules will define the power of elected representatives and how to handle devolved departments in local government system,” he said.

The expert also said under a government decision, 30 percent of development funds would be used by local councils.

“The share of funds utilisation on district, tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils is unclear right now as the government has not framed rules for them,” he said.

The expert said the law had also empowered nazims of village and neighbourhood councils to resolve disputes amicably out of court and form panels of members as conciliators.

He said nazims were obliged to chair the panels.

The expert said the mandate and obligation required an articulate regulatory frame to make it work in an efficient manner.“This frame should be in place before the council is elected,” he said.

When contacted, a senior official of the local government and rural development department said draft rules of business for new local government system had been prepared, which were under discussion at various forums.

He said 13 departments would be devolved to districts, so each department had to share their input in the formulation of rules of the respective department.

The official said the framing of rules was a lengthy exercise involving officials of the departments to be devolved.

He said his department sent the proposed rules to the office of the chief secretary lately.

The official said after approval by the chief secretary, the proposed rules would be sent to the chief minister for consent.

“The rules will be notified by the middle of May,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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