First move to dent Dist Nazims' powers

LAHORE - With restoring the Divisional Commissioner office, it seems to further the cause of denting the powers of the District Nazims, if not the complete rollback of the Local Government System with once-upon-a-time proposed constitutional package to do away with the Sixth Schedule - barring the political dispensation from making any amendment in the Local Government Ordinance - is yet to go through the Parliament for abolishing one of the most controversial plans introduced by the Musharraf regime.

This is certainly a move towards managing the province in a better way, as with the Devolution Plan, many tiers of governance had been created consequently hampering the implementation of the orders passed by the highest administration. “The restoration of the post of the Divisional Commissioner has not violated the Devolution Plan considering the fact that the Chief Executive of the Province can do such a thing, especially when the order has not tempered with the Local Government Ordinance, and it is still intact,” said a senior bureaucrat, who has been privy to the developments.

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has ordered that the office of the Commissioner at the divisions should be restored immediately and the financial resources must be used with extreme caution, care and economy. He directed that appropriate amendments in different laws be made for making the office of the Commissioner as an effective hub of coordination and control.

After the exit of former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan Muslim League-N government seemed to be all geared up for eradicating his remnants, including the LGS, while there is no one interested in protecting the LGS, perhaps owing to the fact that there are more important things to be done at the moment instead of saving the much-criticised though much-hyped Devolution Plan, which is drawing its last breaths at the altars of political and bureaucratic opponents.