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Musharraf offers package for Northern Areas

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf is said to have approved a draft package to devolve more political, administrative and financial powers to the Northern Areas, a region at present directly administered by the federal government.

The Dawn reported that the package, approved on Saturday, envisages law-making powers for the Northern Areas Legislative Council, but also said they were to be devolved to local governments to be set up in the six districts.

The Legislative Council has 34 members, 24 of whom are directly elected, but it is a toothless body.

The “legal framework order” for the package is reported to have been with the President for over six months. According to the report, the sudden decision on it was spurred by the surge in political mobilisation for the return of Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto. The PPP has a strong presence in the region, and many of its activists went to Karachi to welcome her on her return to Pakistan last week.

Gen. Musharraf is said to have approved the package at a meeting attended among others by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Tahir Iqbal and deputy chief executive of the Northern Areas Ghazanfar Ali. He reportedly also asked officials to accommodate suggestions of the elected members of the Legislative Council. One of their proposals is for the Council to be called an Assembly.

The “deputy chief executive” of the Northern Areas is the head of its Council, but must take orders from the federal minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, who is virtually the “chief executive”.

The administration is in the hands of the Chief Secretary who is answerable only to the federal government. The deputy chief executive has no powers over the administration.

The absence of a say for the local people in the governance has been the cause of simmering political discontent in the Northern Areas.

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