Administrative structure Kech

List of Names of all Union Councils, Tehsils, and Municipal Committee

Federal Administration Kech

At district level, the provincial government is represented by the Deputy Commissioner. All the departments, functional in the district, are supposed to work in liaison with the DC. He super-ordinates 4 Assistant Commissioners, one at each of the 4 sub-divisions; 3 Tehsildars, one at each of the 3 tehsils; and 6 Naib-Tehsildars, one at each of the 5 sub-tehsils and one for Zakat and Ushar. The Deputy Commissioner is ex-officio member (in most cases head) of almost all the important committees and forums in the district. He is responsible for the maintenance of law and order in the district, to collect ushar from farmers through a Naib-Tehsildar and to participate in development planning concerning the district.

The Deputy Commissioner, Kech is supervised by the Commissioner, Makran division and then by the Secretary, Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) at the provincial level. He is an intermediary link between micro and macro level administration. Despite the fact that he is supposed to play an important role in socio-economic development of the district through co-ordination and progress review, he is rarely consulted in policy making. The District Development Committee meets regularly under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner but is not very effective. Another dimension of the issue is rapid transfers of Deputy Commissioners. Kech district has seen 19 Deputy Commissioners in its 20 years’ history as a district. The posting period of the Deputy Commissioner ranges from three months to four years. This trend not only creates adhocism but also limits the Deputy Commissioner’s chances of fully acquainting himself with the district affairs. To make long-term plans in such a situation is difficult.

Local Administration Kech

The local government at Kech district comprises 31 union councils, one district council, and one municipal committee. The mandate of local councils was to address various socio-economic development issues on local level through need assessment, planning and implementation (see annex 4 for functions of local government). These local councils are supervised and supported by Local Government and Rural Development Department through an Assistant Director at district level. However, it is a common complaint that instead of working as an auxiliary organisation, LG&RDD has been posing bureaucratic hurdles in the affairs of local government institutions.

Ideally, local government institutions are constituted on the assumption that in this way grass root decision making and implementation for development could be ensured; but this ideal has not been realised. Although small communities elect their representatives at local level and there is more intense interaction and exchange of ideas between representatives and the electoral college, participation of common folks in the decision making process is minimal. After being elected, members of local councils rarely consult their voters on development issues. Similarly, the appraisal of development potential and planning for exploitation of this potential is not according to the bottom-up approach. Rather a top-down decision making and implementation approach is followed. This approach leaves no room for participation of local government institutions in development planning.

All local government institutions in Balochistan have been dissolved on 18th of December 1996 for new elections in 1997. Now these institutions are working under the supervision of government officials. The Deputy Commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner and the Development Officer, LG&RDD administer the district council, the municipal committee and the union councils respectively.