PESHAWAR: The Khyber Palchtunkhwa government has decided it will make several changes to the local government system in the province by giving nazims more powers, a say in the district development committee affairs and better discretionary funds.

During a briefing at the Chief Minister`s House here, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak informed reporters about the activities and decisions of a high-powered committee tasked with improving the LG legal framework and operational arrangements.

The committee was headed by senior minister for local government Inayatullah Khan and had senior ministers for health and irrigation, chief secretary and local government and law secretaries as members.

The CM said he chaired a meeting of the committee on July 13 wherein its recommendations were approved.

The minutes of the meeting shared with media suggest that the government is going to make changes to the local government framework at multiple levels, including planning and development (P&D) guidelines, LG Act and rules governing three tiers of the LG system.

Mr. Khattak said the committee had decided to empower district nazims in light of the LG Act 2013 and therefore, the LG Rules of Business 2015 and other related regulations would be amended to empower district nazims as given in Section 11-16 of the LG Act 2013.

The proposed amendment will wrest most power from the district bureaucracy, which the government gave them in the aftermath of the ruling party`s poor performance in the May 2015 LG elections.

The CM said changes would be made in priority areas shown in the P&D guidelines, while discretionary funds ofdistrict and tehsil governments would be increased.

He said the committee had decided to increase the district government`s discretionary funds from 25pc to 55pc and the tehsil government`s from 30pc to 50pc.

Mr. Khattak said there would be a ban on temporary and/or fixed pay or daily wages appointments at district levels except for those approved by the LG secretary.

He said in case of the first violation, a warning would be issued, while in the second instance, remuneration of temporary staffers would be recovered from the salary of defaulting officers.

The CM said amendments would be made to the P&D guidelines to give nazims more powers at district and tehsil levels. Under the P&D guidelines, the deputy commissioner is the DDC chairperson and assistant commissioner concerned acts as the head of tehsil development committee.

However, amendments to the guidelines will put the district and tehsil nazims at the helm of these committees though the rest of the composition will remain the same. The deputy commissioner`s role will be reduced to a member`s.

Mr. Khattak said once the DDC approved a PC-I, the administrative approval would be issued by a deputy commissioner within a week but the DC could return it to the DDC for review ontechnical grounds.

He however said the DC would continue chairing the DDC meetings on the provincial g o y e r n m e n t schemes at district levels.

The CM said at tehsil level, tehsil nazim would head the TDC, while rest of the committee composition would remain the same.

He said a committee of nazimsheaded by district nazim would monitor the performance of Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar and Water and Sanitation Services Company at divisional level against the already decided key performance indicators.

Mr. Khattak said TMA nazims would be the members of the boards of directors of the relevant WSSPs/WSSCs.

He said the LG Act 2013 would be amended to make enumeration of TMA employees and utility bills as first charged expenditure of those bodies.

`For TMAs, Provincial Finance Commission and octroi share will be transferred as one line transfer. The enumeration of TMA employees will be first charged on lump sum amount so received by TMA, liabilities will be second charged. The remaining funds will be utilised for development purposes,` he said.

The CM said it would be mandatory for heads of all devolved departments to attend meetings about which they had been informed or requested a week.

He said the limit of petrol for district nazim might be increased from 200 to 300 litres per month, while the allotment of 4x4 vehicles might be considered for nazims on the analogy of DDAC chairman`s vehicles.

Mr. Khattak said vehicles would also be given to naib nazim of the district council, district and tehsil councils secretaries 1000cc vehicles and assistant engineer van.