KP govt to introduce two-tier local govt system

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is set to introduce a two-tier local government system in the province that would exclude the current district council tier as well as the office of district nazim.Prime Minister Imran Khan gave the green signal to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government during a meeting with Governor Shah Farman and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan for introducing the new local government system comprising tehsil and union council tiers. Talking to The News, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimoor Salim Jhagra said that except Peshawar all districts in the province would have tehsil councils, village councils and neighbourhood councils and the nazims would be elected directly by the people.“Like other cosmopolitan cities, Peshawar would have its own mayor representing the urban areas of the city,” he said. He explained that the tehsil and union councils would be made more powerful and responsible regarding development work, particularly civic services and municipal activities.Taimoor Salim Jhagra, who was also present at the meeting between the prime minister and chief minister in Islamabad, said that the provincial government had almost finalised a draft for the new Local Government System and an Act would be passed from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly shortly.He said the government wanted to hold polling for local governments at the same time across the province, including the newly merged tribal districts. However, he said a final decision would be taken after proper legislation in the provincial assembly in this regard. The provincial finance minister stated that the government had planned to hold elections for the provincial assembly seats in the tribal districts in July this year. He said the erstwhile tribal areas had been demarcated into 16 provincial assembly constituencies while the five reserved seats would include four for women and one for the minorities.

from The News International - Peshawar https://ift.tt/2CKZFvs