In another move against the local government (LG) system, the Punjab government is all set to give powers to write the annual confidential reports (ACR) of district coordination officers (DCO) to commissioners in a cabinet meeting today (Thursday), as done in the pre-LG system, Pakistan Today has learnt. The ACR of a DCO was written by the district nazim under the LG ordinance, ensuring a check through ‘the will of the people’ on the bureaucracy. However, after expiry of the last term of nazims in 2009, the Punjab government made DCOs as administrators authorising them to use powers of nazims, although the constitution did not recognise a time when there would be no LGs in place.
Recently, the Punjab government abolished the posts of executive district officer (revenue), (EDO) R, getting the revenue collection powers out of the district and bringing it under the provincial government. Instead of showing the will to hold LG elections, yet again the government was all set to take another step against the LG system by further empowering the commissioners with powers to write ACRs of DCOs.
The Punjab LG Act will be amended to accommodate the new change. Sources revealed that the cabinet will also abolish the word EDO(R) still occurring in the LG act and create various legal complexities. Sources in the government informed that ACRs played a pivotal role in the career of any officer and given proper weight at the time of promotion or important postings. Presently, they said a lot of ACRs were pending for such a long time as terms of nazims had expired and no one was there to write them.
This had also created “anxiety” among officers serving in districts because there was no system of their evaluation. They said the step had been taken to clear the backlog of ACRs pending since the last two years. Sources maintained that it clearly showed that the Punjab government had no will to hold LG elections.
