Brief Description of the Pakistan local Government Structure

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Demography
Created in 1947 following the partition of India, Pakistan has a population of 130 million, making it the seventh most populous country in the world. According to the 1998 census, 32.5 per cent of the population lived in urban areas, compared to 28.3 per cent in 1981. There is a higher male to female ratio in Pakistan compared to other countries. Overall population growth rate has fallen from 3.06 to 2.61 percent.
Pakistan is a federation with four provinces - North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab - and some federally administered regions. Of the four provinces, Punjab is the most populous and contains more than half of the country's population. Baluchistan that has the largest land mass is the most sparsely populated province with around five per cent of the country's population. The federally administered areas constitute around three per cent of the population. Since a census has been overdue for more than seven years, it is not possible to give reliable estimates for urban/city size and growth. Karachi is Pakistan's largest city with a population of around ten million, with Lahore the next largest city with a population of six million. At least eight cities have a population of more than one million.
Urban growth in one million plus cities has been far higher than that for the entire country. Small towns and medium sized towns have been the fastest growing settlements in Pakistan over the last two decades and have dominated the economy, politics and institutions of central, provincial and local government

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National governmental and political structure
Pakistan has a bicameral system of government, with a President as head of state and a Prime Minister elected by a 340 member National Assembly. Elections are to be held every five years according to the Constitution of Pakistan, with every Pakistani over the age of 18 entitled to elect representatives from each constituency. Concurrently, elections are also held to elect members of the four Provincial Assemblies for each province. A higher chamber, the Senate, is then elected on the basis of representation from each Provincial Assembly. The electoral college of the National and Provincial Assemblies together elects the President of Pakistan, who used to have extensive powers due to amendments in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, but these have once again been reduced to primarily ceremonial duties. Local government plays no role in the elections of either the Senate, the President or in the political and electoral structure of Pakistan.
Pakistan's political and electoral system is loosely based on the principles from the Westminster model, which is prevalent in most countries that have been colonies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. In Pakistan a thriving multi party system exists both at the national and provincial levels. Hundreds of parties exist in the political arena, with often scores of candidates contesting one assembly seat. However, since the return of democracy in 1988, only two parties have formed four national level governments, both twice each. They have also had recourse to form coalitions with other smaller parties to form a majority. At the provincial level, along with the two main national parties, a large number of smaller province-level parties have also shared power in each of the four provinces. Although party politics dominates heavily, independent persons as well as members of government at the provincial level have been part of the assemblies too.
Evolution of Local Government, its Legal and Political Background
Local governments have existed in the Indian subcontinent for many centuries, with the first municipal corporation set-up in Madras in 1688 by the East India Company. In 1842, the Conservancy Act which lead to the formation of sanitary committees for garbage disposal became the first formal measure of municipal organization which applied to the Bengal Presidency. In Karachi, the Board of Conservancy was established in 1846, while in Lahore and Rawalpindi, the Municipal Act was passed in 1867. Subsequent important events were Lord Ripon's Resolution on local self-government in 1882, which allowed for the provision of some elected members in municipal committees and proposed the establishment of rural local governments. The 1907 Decentralization Commission recommended the appointment of non-official Chairmen of municipal committees, a recommendation which was endorsed and extended further by the 1925 Simon Commission set up to assess the performance of local self-government. The 1935 Government of India Act allowed provincial autonomy and permitted provinces to frame legislation on local government systems.

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In 1947 the areas that constituted Pakistan had few developed systems of local government and they were confined mainly to Punjab. Wherever local government existed, it was not based on adult franchise and its agenda and budget was under severe bureaucratic control of the Deputy Commissioner who played a critical role in determining its policy. The period 1958 to 1969 saw the erection of Pakistan's first Martial Law and the establishment of a military government as well as the development of an extensive elected system of local government. The military government after disbanding the provincial and national governments realized that there was a need for at least a resemblance of involvement of the people in their own affairs. This gave rise to the Basic Democracies System providing for a new local government system across the country through which members were elected. In urban areas, town committees were set up for towns having a population of less than 14,000. Under the Basic Democracies Ordinance of 1959, urban areas were defined as areas under the jurisdiction of a municipal body or any other area that the government could declare as an urban area. Town committees were expected to perform 37 functions ranging from measures for promotion of social welfare and health to the maintenance of infrastructural facilities. These committees could also levy taxes on 29 items that included vehicles and trade.
Urban areas consisted of union committees that had six to ten elected members. The Chairman of the union committee was elected as an ex-officio member of the municipal committee. Union committees were deprived of fiscal powers of any sort. While all the Chairmen of union committees were members of the municipal committee, the Chairman of the municipal committee itself was appointed by the provincial government or by Commissioners. In rural areas, the first tier of government was the Union Council that consisted of a group of villages. Like urban areas, each Council elected a Chairman from amongst its members who served as the executive head of the committee. Like town committees, Union Councils also had 37 functions assigned to them. The Chairmen of the Union Councils in an area constituted collectively a higher Council, the Tehsil Council, which did not perform any executive functions. Its main function was to coordinate the activities of Union Councils and Union Committees in its jurisdiction. Unlike Union Councils, the Tehsil Council had no taxation powers.
In the Basic Democracies System, a District Council was created, consisting of an Electoral College of which all Chairmen of Union Councils, town and union committees were members, removing the distinction between urban and rural areas. The District Council had 28 obligatory and 70 optional functions and powers to levy taxes. Its main purpose was to coordinate the activities of all local councils and municipal committees under its jurisdiction. The Basic Democracies system was seen as a substitute for universal suffrage and served as an Electoral College to elect the President and the assemblies. However, with the fall of the Ayub Khan regime, to which the system was closely associated, it fell into disfavour. Besides, the first general elections of 1970 and the separation of East Pakistan from Pakistan resulted in the formation of an altogether new system of government in the country. Ironically though, the proposed elections to be held under the People's Local Government Ordinance of 1975 promulgated by Pakistan's first democratically elected government and meant to elect town and municipal committees (as well as councils in the rural area), were never held.
If the first Martial Law Government was the pioneer in devising an extensive system of local governments, it was the second Martial Law Regime of General Zia that implemented elected local governments. These were revived in 1979 under the provincial local government ordinances, which, with amendments, is still in operation in Pakistan. Under this ordinance, there are four levels of municipal government in the urban areas: town committees, municipal committees, municipal corporations and metropolitan corporations. Members of the council elect the senior officers of these councils and the controlling authority is the elected house. There is a three-tier system of local government in operation in Pakistan in the rural areas, where Union Councils, Tehsil or Taluka Councils and District Councils are supposed to exist. However, provincial governments have in practice usually abolished the middle-tier, the Tehsil/Taluka level. As a result mainly Union Councils and District Councils exist, which are elected on the basis of adult franchise. The elected members elect the Chairmen of these councils themselves.
The period since 1985 has seen five general elections enabling the people to choose members of the provincial and national assemblies. In the absence of elected assemblies however, local governments were the only popularly elected bodies and thus played important political and developmentalist roles. After the election of Senators and members of the provincial and national assemblies, the role of local governments has been substantially marginalized. These elected representatives have taken over some functions which local governments used to perform. Specific federal and provincial level programmes that were directed at elected provincial and federal members of parliament, such as the Five Point Programme of the Junejo Government (1985-1988), the Peoples Programme of the first Benazir Bhutto Government and other such programmes, have in many ways intervened in the evolution of proper and improved local government.
Under the above named programmes, elected members of provincial and national assemblies were given funds of considerable amount that they could use, largely on their own discretion, for developmentalist projects in their political constituency. This has severely undermined the role local governments have been playing and can play in the development of particular (local) areas and regions. Furthermore, the fact that the elected principle of local bodies has been in abeyance reflects the attitude of elected and non-elected government officials. There seems to be an inherent conflict of interest between different tiers of government in which local governments, assumed to be the most expendable, have had to bear the brunt.
Constitutional provision of local government

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In the Constitution, the allocations of the functions of the federal and provincial governments are clearly specified. There are some functions that are the exclusive responsibility of the federal government, while others according to the Constitution can either be performed by the federal or provincial governments. The existence of local governments is not formally embodied in the Constitution. Local governments in Pakistan exist under the supervision of the various provincial governments, where provincial governments have merely delegated some of their functions and responsibilities to local governments by the promulgation of ordinances. The Local Government Ordinance of 1979 and its amendments are in operation in Punjab, Sindh and NWFP, while Baluchistan's local governments are under the 1980 Ordinance. These ordinances specify the allocation of residuary functions of local governments. Since the dissolution of elected local governments in the early 1990s, elected local governments have only been restored in Punjab Province and NWFP.
In NWFP all local bodies were dissolved in 1991, in Sindh in 1992 and in Punjab in August 1993. Different reasons exist as to why the provincial governments dissolved the local governments in their own provinces. In the case of the NWFP, mismanagement and corruption were cited as reasons, while Punjab provincial government dissolved its local governments in order to ensure that national elections held in October 1993 were not influenced by incumbent local government officials. In the absence of democratically elected local government officials in rural and urban areas, Administrators ran all town committees, municipal committees and municipal corporations. Administrators are members of either the federal or provincial public service cadre or individuals appointed by the provincial government and can be transferred between different posts for unspecified duration of tenure.

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Local Government Categories and Hierarchies
The local government ordinances specify that local urban areas shall be defined as a town, Municipality, city or metropolis depending on their size. The corresponding local government is a town committee, a municipal committee, a municipal corporation or a metropolitan corporation. Municipal status is primarily a function of population. Urban settlements with a population ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 are generally designated as town committees. Municipal committees have populations up to 250,000. Cities beyond that size and provincial capitals either have a municipal or a metropolitan corporation status. Property tax rating areas generally extend to the municipal committees and the larger town committees. The status of local government functionaries is directly correlated with the municipal status of the particular jurisdiction. At present, there are 2 metropolitan corporations, 15 municipal corporations, 156 municipal committees and 301 town committees functioning in Pakistan.
In urban areas, the four types of municipal committees have an organizational set-up that is more or less similar across the provinces. Despite the fact that urban Union Councils from town committees to municipal corporations vary in size a, where the latter may be as much as a hundred times the size of the former, there are very clear similarities in their organizational structure. There are always three sections or departments comprising general administration, finance and engineering. Town committees have just these three departments that grow in size and qualitative specialization as the size of the urban area increases, i.e. when a municipal committee or corporation represents it. Municipal committees and corporations are also very similar with regards to the nature of their organizational structure and both have two additional departments: education and health. Furthermore, the accounts department consists of two separate units, one for finance and the other for taxation.
The two metropolitan corporations of Lahore and Karachi have much more diverse and extensive organizational structures by virtue of their size. For example, given the extensive nature of the types of works that are to be performed in metropolitan areas, there is a need for additional departments that perform specialized functions pertaining to legal affairs, land management, development, etc. Besides, the larger municipal corporations in the country, together with the two metropolitan corporations have development authorities functioning as parallel organizations within the cities. However, while urban local councils perform more service related functions, development authorities are more involved with engineering, urban and town planning as well as traffic related issues.

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Local Government Functions
The Local Government Ordinance specifies two sets of functions to be performed by local governments: compulsory and optional functions. In general the sets of functions for local governments in different provinces are more or less the same. There is further differentiation between the functions of a regulatory nature and those that relate to the provision of services. For the three larger provinces, a common list for all urban councils containing compulsory and optional functions exists. Thus, town committees, municipal committees, municipal corporations and metropolitan corporations (with the exception of Karachi) are supposed to perform the same functions. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has been given additional functions. Due to the lower extent of urbanization in Baluchistan a smaller list of functions exists for town committees.
Local governments already have a very large number of functions which they are expected to perform. It is unlikely that extending their statutory duties would have a particularly significant and positive effect on their performance. Thus legal provisions are not a real handicap. It is likely that financial and technical and possibly bureaucratic constraints, may be the cause for the poor performance of most municipal governments. Like their urban counterpart, a very long list of functions for the two-tiered rural local government exists as well. Union Councilors are expected to perform civil, welfare and development functions. The civil functions include the provision and maintenance of public ways, sanitation, conservancy, the slaughter of animals, maintenance of wells, water pumps and tanks. If calamities strike, the Union Councils are expected to undertake relief measures and other measures to promote welfare and health. The development functions of the council include measures to increase food production, industry and promote community development.
District Councils have optional and compulsory functions. Compulsory functions include the provision and maintenance of roads, bridges, public buildings, water supply, maintenance and management of hospitals, maintenance and construction of school buildings etc. Many of the optional functions of District Councils are similar to those of town committees. Despite the large number of legislative functions of local councils and their often extensive organization and management structures, very few functions are actually carried out by local councils.
In urban areas, essentially three basic (compulsory) services are carried out - garbage disposal, maintenance of roads and street lighting. In larger cities, local government looks after preventive health care, which is beyond the scope of smaller urban councils. Most urban local councils are involved in the maintenance of water and sanitation services. Essentially, urban local councils have restricted their role to some of the compulsory functions which they are expected to perform. In smaller cities, even these compulsory functions have been unfulfilled by the local council because they either do not have the funds or know how to undertake the compulsory functions. In rural areas, the actual role of Union Councils and District Councils is even more limited than the role played by smaller urban councils. Some District Councils are involved in the development and maintenance of link roads and drainage. Union Councils have virtually no role in development or maintenance of services. The larger District Councils have a partial involvement in the provision of preventive and curative health care and in animal husbandry.
Compulsory functions of urban councils
· Public health (sanitation, insanitary buildings and lands, removal, collection and disposal of refuse, latrines and urinals, birth and death and infectious diseases):
- A Committee shall be responsible for the sanitation of the Municipality and may, by notice, require the owner or occupier of any building or land which is in an insanitary or unwholesome state to clean or otherwise put it in a proper state, make arrangements to the satisfaction of the Committee for its proper sanitation, lime-wash the building and make such essential repairs as may be specified in the notice;
- A Committee shall make adequate arrangements for the removal of refuse from all public roads and streets, public latrines, urinals, drains and all buildings and land vested in the Committee and for the collection and proper disposal of such refuse;
- A Committee shall cause public dust-bins or other suitable receptacles to be provided at suitable places and in proper and convenient situation in streets or other public places and require that all refuse accumulating in any premises or land shall be deposited by the owner or occupier of such premises;
- A Committee shall provide and maintain in sufficient number and in proper situations, public latrines and urinals for the separate use of each sex and shall cause the same to be kept in proper order and to be properly cleaned;
- A Committee shall register all births and deaths within the limits of the Municipality and information shall be given by such persons or authorities and registered in such manner as the bye-laws may provide; and
- A Committee shall adopt measures to prevent infectious diseases and restrain infection within the Municipality and shall establish and maintain one or more hospitals for reception and treatment of persons suffering from such diseases.
· Water supply: wholesome water sufficient for public and private purposes.
· Drainage:
- A Committee shall provide an adequate system of public drains in the Municipality and all such drains shall be constructed, maintained, kept, cleared and emptied with due regard to the health and convenience of the public;
- Every owner or occupier of any land or building within the Municipality may, with the previous permission of the Committee and subject to such terms and conditions, including the payment of fees cause his drains to be emptied into public drains; and
- All private drains shall be subject to control, regulation and inspection.
· Food and drinks: no private market for the sale of articles of food or drink or animals shall be established or maintained within a Municipality except under a license granted by the Committee and in conformity with conditions of such license.
· Animals and cattle: prohibition on picketing and tethering in streets, prohibition against keeping and maintaining cattle, provisions regarding dangerous animals and disposal of carcasses.
· Education:
- A Committee shall establish, maintain and manage such educational institutions as may be required by the government and may, with the previous approval of government, maintain such other educational institutions as may be necessary for the promotion of education in the Municipality;
- All educational institutions maintained by the Committee shall be maintained in a state of efficiency and shall conform to prescribed standards;
- A Committee may, with the previous approval of government, give financial aid to private educational institutions within the Municipality; and
- Subject to any law for the time being in force, a Committee shall be responsible for enforcement of compulsory education in the Municipality and it may in this behalf adopt all such measures as may be necessary to ensure that every child of school-going age in the Municipality attends a school recognized by the Committee.
· Public safety: fire fighting, civil defense, floods, and trade in dangerous and offensive articles.
· Town planning: draw up a Master Plan for the Municipality, Site Development Schemes, and the execution of Site Development Schemes.
· Building control: erection and re-erection of buildings, completion of buildings, alteration of buildings, regulation of buildings etc.
· Streets: public streets, street lighting/watering, traffic control and public vehicles.
· Arboriculture.
Optional functions of urban councils
· Public health:
- Subject to the provisions of this ordinance and the rules, a Committee may take such measures for promoting public health, including education in health, as it considers necessary or, as the case may be, government directs;
- A Committee may (a) establish, maintain, manage or contribute towards the maintenance of health centres and maternity centres for the welfare of women, infants and children; and (b) provide for the training of Dais;
- A Committee may establish, maintain and manage, in the prescribed manner such number of hospitals and dispensaries as may be necessary;
- A Committee may take such measures as may be necessary or as may be specified by government for the provision, maintenance and management of First Aid Centres and mobile medical aid units, the provision and encouragement of societies for the provision of medical aid, the promotion of medical education, the payment of grants to institutions for medical relief and the medical inspection of school children; and
- A Committee may prepare and implement schemes for the prevention of pollution of air by the gases, dust or other substances exhausted or emitted by auto-mobiles, engines, factories, brick or lime kilns, crushing machines for grain, stone, salt or other materials and such other sources of air pollution as the bye-laws may provide.
· Dhobi Gats, ferries etc.: bathing and washing places, Dhobi Ghat, public water courses, public ferries and public fisheries.
· Foods and drinks: bye-laws for articles of food and drink as well as milk supply.
· Trees, parks, gardens and forests: open spaces, nuisances pertaining to trees and plantations, tanks and low-lying areas.
· Education:
- Construct and maintain buildings to be used as hostels for students;
- Give scholarships to deserving or especially bright students;
- Provide for the training of teachers;
- Promote adult education;
- Provide free schoolbooks to orphans and indigent students or at concessional rates;
- Maintain depots for the sale of schoolbooks and articles of stationery;
- Promote and assist educational societies;
- Undertake an educational survey and enforce educational plans; and
- Provide either free of charge or on payment milk or meals for school children.
· Culture: libraries, fairs, shows etc.
· Social welfare:
- Establish, manage and maintain welfare homes, asylum orphanages, widow homes and other institutions for the relief of the distressed;
- Provide for the burial and burning of paupers found dead within the Municipality at its own expense;
- Adopt such measures as may be prescribed for the prevention of beggary, prostitution, gambling, taking of injurious drugs and consumption of alcoholic liquor, juvenile delinquency and other social evils; and
- Organize social service volunteers and adopt measures for the promotion of the welfare of backward classes, families of the persons weaving in Armed Forces, women and children.

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Functions of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation
· Physical planning, town planning and building control;
· Trunk sewerage system, sewerage treatment plants and sewerage farms;
· Bulk water supply;
· Refuse disposal plants;
· Abattoirs and cattle colonies;
· Special and general hospitals as well as maternity homes with 50 beds or more like Spencer's Eye Hospital, Leprosy Hospital, Epidemic Hospital, New Challi Hospital, Lyari Hospital, Sobhrajh and Ranchore Lane Maternity Homes;
· Planning and supervision of vector control;
· Planning, development and maintenance of food laboratories;
· Air and water pollution control;
· Milk supply schemes;
· Planning, development and maintenance of metropolitan roads and storm water drains;
· Metropolitan transport and traffic engineering;
· Land control
· Higher and specialized education including teachers training;
· Regularization of Katchi Abadis and implementation of the Special Karachi Development Project;
· Municipal police;
· Control workshops and press;
· Zoological gardens, aquaria, metropolitan stadium, safari parks, sports complexes and beaches;
· Metropolitan libraries, museums and art galleries;
· Preservation of landscape, river training and flood control;
· Planning, development and maintenance of fire fighting services;
· Control of infectious diseases;
· Public ferries;
· Articles of food and drink;
· Site development schemes;
· Civil defense;
· Metropolitan burial grounds and burning places;
· Forests;
· Training of Municipal Servants; and
· Any other function assigned by the government

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Local Government Elections 2005Union Level Elections
Union Nazims, Naib Union Nazims and members of Union Councils were elected through direct elections based on adult franchise and on the basis of joint electorate in two phases in all Provinces on the following polling dates:

Phase – I. In 54* Districts on 18th August, 2005.
Phase – II. In 56 Districts on 25th August, 2005.
* In District Ghotki Elections were stayed by Sindh High Court.

District/Tehsil/Taluka/Town Level Elections

Zila Nazims, Tehsil and Town Nazims , women, peasants & workers and minorities members against reserved seats in the Zila Councils and Tehsil/Town Councils were elected by their respective electoral college, comprising members of Union Councils including Union Nazims and Naib Union Nazim in all districts, except District Ghotki on 6th Oct, 2005

Conclusions:

Nominations showed substantial increase with the maximum increase in the category of Peasants and Workers followed by Muslim General, Muslim General (Women) and Peasants & Workers (Women). Districts like Dir and Malakand have shown marked improvement particularly in case of women nominations.


Number of candidates returned unopposed on all seats has considerably reduced except in the case of minorities, which in case of NWFP and Balochistan could be attributed to scanty minorities’ population in these provinces.


Certain areas of Balochistan maintained their earlier pattern of filling all seats through unopposed candidates because of strong tribal hold.


The vacant seats in all categories considerably reduced in all the provinces.


32 women elected as Nazim and Naib Nazim


There was about 5% decrease in voter’s turnout in Punjab where bulk of country’s population (56%) resides. The voter’s turnout registered about 4% decrease in Sindh and 3% in NWFP and about 2% decrease in Balochistan. The overall decrease in voter’s turnout as compared to first local government elections was about 5% which could be attributed to reduction of seats in the Unions from 21 to 13. However as compared with the last General Elections-2002, the voters turnout during Local Government Election 2005 showed an increase of about 6%.


The increase in nominations, decrease in unopposed returned candidates and vacant seats and high voters turnout reflect on the enhanced people’s participation in the Local Government Elections, 2005 was indicative of their growing interest / confidence in the local government system, which augur well for the reform turning into a political movement.

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The Local Government System 2001
The provincial governments promulgated the Local Government Ordinance, 2001 in their respective provinces to install a new integrated Local Government System with effect from 14th August 2001 to function within the provincial framework and adhere to the Federal and Provincial laws. The new system, which may be best described through the 5Ds Local Government System 2001 in Figure-1, reorients administrative system to allow public participation in decision-making. The essence of this system is that the local governments are accountable to citizens for all their decisions. It enables the proactive elements of society to participate in community work and development related activities. It has also removed rural-urban divide.
The new system provides three-tier local government structure in which there is only one line of authority in the district and district bureaucracy is responsible to the elected representatives. More operational autonomy is ensured to the district level offices. Administrative and financial powers of the defunct divisional offices have been, by & large, delegated to the District level.

At the top tier, the District, there is a single integrated local government called District Government (See organogram in Figure-2). The district government consists of Zila Nazim and District Administration. The District Administration, which comprises district offices including sub-offices at tehsil level. The Provincial Government departments decentralized to the District Government, are responsible to the Zila Nazim. The administration is now responsible to serve the people. Adequate checks and balances have been introduced in the System. The new System effectively addresses the specific needs and problems of large cities. In addition to declaration of four provincial headquarters as City Districts, the System has provisions to declare a city/tehsil as City District and Towns when it becomes urbanized and fulfills the criteria of a City District. Government of the Punjab has declared Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad as City Districts in June 2005.

The middle tier, the Tehsil, has Tehsil Municipal Administration headed by the Tehsil Nazim. The Tehsil Municipal Administration includes the offices and sub-offices of the Urban Local Councils established under the repealed Local Government Ordinance 1979, offices and sub-offices of Local Government & Rural Development, Public Health Engineering and Housing & Physical Planning Departments of Provincial Government entrusted to it for administrative and financial management. The organizational structure of a Tehsil Municipal Administration is shown in Figure-3. In a City District, a Town Municipal Administration is organized more or less on the same pattern as Tehsil Municipal Administration in a common District.

At the lower tier, the Union Administration, which is a body corporate, covers the rural as well as urban areas across the whole district. It consists of Union Nazim, Naib Union Nazim and three Union Secretaries and other ancillary staff (Figure-4).

The coordination between the three tiers is ensured through the following arrangements:

The Zila Council in a common district or in a city district, apart from reserved seats for women, peasants & workers and minorities, consists of Union Nazims of all the unions in the district or the city district. Similarly the Tehsil/Town Council, apart from reserved seats for women, peasants & workers and minorities, consists of Naib Union Nazims of all the unions in the tehsil in a common district or in the town in a city district. This provides vertical linkages between the three tiers of the local governments i.e. the Union, Tehsil, and District. Union Nazim and Naib Union Nazim are elected as joint candidates to the Union Council, which consists of thirteen elected members against general and reserved seats including the Union Nazim and Naib Union Nazim.

The new Local Government System envisages formula-based fiscal transfers to the districts through Provincial Finance Awards. In addition, local governments are allowed to levy local taxes/fees from a specified list (Table-1). To promote trade and commerce in the country there will be no import/export tax or tax on movement of goods through a district. According to the new Local Government System, local governments are not allowed to incur any debt to finance their expenditures.

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References
Applied Economics Research Centre (AERC), A Model of Municipal Finances in Pakistan, Karachi, 1990
Local Government Finances and Administration in Pakistan, three volumes, Karachi, 1990
Resource Mobilization and Institutional Capacity Study, seven volumes, Karachi, 1991
Resource Mobilization by Federal Government in Pakistan, Karachi, 1992
Resource Mobilization by Provincial and Local Governments in Pakistan, Karachi, 1992
Metropolitan Resource Generation Study, seven volumes, Karachi, 1993
Qureshi, Sarfraz K., Pakistan, in UNESCAP Development Papers No 11, UNESCAP, Bangkok, 1991
Zaidi, S. Akbar, Effective Local Level Delivery of Human Resources: Development Related Programmes - The case of Pakistan, Mimeo UNESCAP, Bangkok, 1991
A Study on Making Optimum Use of Municipal Budgets to Finance Child Development in Pakistan, Mimeo, UNICEF, Karachi, 1994
Urban Local Government in Pakistan : Expecting too Much from too Little?, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 31, No. 44, 1996
Nazrul and M. Mohabbat Khan (eds.), Urban Local Governance in Pakistan, in Islam: Urban Governance in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1997
Khuhro Hameeda (ed.), Karachi: Prospects for the Future, in Karachi: Megacity of Our Times, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1997
Poverty, Politics, Institutions: The case of Karachi, Economic and Political Weekly, (forthcoming)

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