Deputy commissioner (Pakistan)

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Deputy commissioner (popularly abbreviated as "DC" and DCO) is a chief administrative, land revenue officer/collector and representative of government in district or an administrative sub-unit of a division in Pakistan. [1] The office-holder belongs to the commission of Pakistan Administrative Service [2] erstwhile DMG/CSP or the Provincial Management Service erstwhile Provincial Civil Service.

Contents

The deputy commissioner is assisted by additional deputy commissioners (general, revenue, finance, and planning) and assistant commissioners and district monitoring officer, deputy director development and General assistant revenue.[ citation needed ]

Divisional commissioner is assisted by additional commissioners (revenue, consolidation, coordination) and assistant commissioners (general, revenue) and director development.

In absence or transfer of the commissioner, deputy commissioner of division headquarter holds the acting charge, normally.

List of serving deputy commissioners

As of Sept. 2022, following are the names of serving DCs in Pakistan:

Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), federal capital

ICTIncumbent namePredecessor
IslamabadIrfan Nawaz Memon
  • M Hamzah Shafqaat
  • Capt Mushtaq Ah

Punjab Province

DistrictIncumbent DCPredecessor
Attock (Campbellpur)Rao Atif PASZulqrnain langrial (PCS/BS19)
Bahawalnagar Capt (Retd) Muhammad Waseem
Bahawalpur Irfan Ali Kathia PMS
Bhakkar Zulfiqar BhoonImran Hamid
Chakwal Qurat ul AinCapt. Retd Bilal Hashim
Chiniot Farooq RashidCapt. Nadeem Nasir
Dera Ghazi Khan Shahid Zaman LakHamza Salick
Faisalabad (Lyallpur)Imran hamid DMGEngr. Ali Shehzad

DMG

Gujranwala Saira UmarDanish Afzal
Gujrat Capt Rizwan QadeerMehtab Waseem Azhar
Hafizabad Allah Ditta PCS/PMSMuhammad Asif Raza PAS
Jhang Abdullah KhurramShahid Abbas PMS
Jhelum Nouman HafeezNouman Hafeez PMS
Kasur Irshad Bhatti PMSFayyaz Ahmed Mohal PMS
Khanewal Shahid FaridSalman Khan PMS
Khushab Zeeshan ShabbirCapt Aurangzeb Haider Khan
Lahore Rafia Hyder

PAS

Dr Umer Chattha

DMG/PAS

Layyah Azfar Zia
Lodhran Agha Zaheer Abbas PMSCapt. Shoaib Ali
Mandi Bahauddin Shahid Imran MarthShahid Imran Marth
Mianwali Muhammad UmairUmar javed
Multan Capt Retd Qadeer
Muzaffargarh Ali Anan QamarMusa Raza
Narowal Shah rukh Niazi PMSImtiaz Shahid PMS
Nankana Sahib Ahmar NaikZahid Pervaiz
Okara Zahid PervaizCapt(R) Muhammad Ali Ijaz
Pakpattan Imtiaz Ahmad khan khichi
Rahim Yar Khan Musa RazaMehtab Wasim
Rajanpur Arif RaheemJamil A jamil
Rawalpindi Dr Hassan Waqar CheemaCapt. Shoaib Ali
Sahiwal (Montgomery)Kamran khanAwais Malik
Sargodha Capt. Shaoib AliFlt. Lt. Imran Qureshi
Sheikhupura Rana Shakeel Aslam PMS
Sialkot abdullah Khurramm niaziMessam Abbas
Gilgit Capt(R) Usama Majeed Cheema
Toba Tek Singh Zahid SohailUmer javed
Vehari Safdar Virk PCSKhidar Afzal Gujjar

List of serving commissioners

Islamabad, ICT, federal capital

Chief commissioner ICTIncumbent namePredecessor
IslamabadCapt. Anwar Ul Haq*Aamir Ali Ahmed *Joudat Ayaz

Punjab Province

DivisionName
Bahawalpur Capt. Rtd Zafar Iqbal
Dera Ghazi Khan Usman Anwar
Faisalabad Zahid hussain
Gujranwala Ghulam Farid
Gujrat Safder Verk
Lahore Capt. Asad Sumbal
Multan Amir Khattak
Rawalpindi Saqib Mannan
Sahiwal Ali Bahadur Qazi
Sargodha Maryam khan

Sindh Province

DivisionName
Banbhore(formed in 2013)
Hyderabad Nadeem-ur-Rehman Memon
Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon
Sukkur Ghulam Mustafa Phul
Larkana
Mirpur Khas
Shaheed Benazirabad
Khairpur Sharjeel Noor Channa PAS

History

Post devolution Local Government Reforms (2001 to 2008)

During the presidency of Pervaz Musharraf, the office of deputy commissioner was replaced with district coordination officer, except in Islamabad. Also, the office of divisional commissioner was abolished. After his presidency, provincial governments of Pakistan again established this office through constitutional amendments. [3] [4] [5]

However the office of deputy commissioner is deprived of its previous powers of as a district magistrate. Subsequently, additional deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners does not execute the role of additional district magistrate and sub-divisional magistrate, respectively. Magisterial powers are now[ as of? ] executed by judicial officers and judges.

Post-independence of Pakistan

Deputy commissioners/district magistrates of Rawalpindi District Deputy Commissioner of Rawalpindi District.jpg
Deputy commissioners/district magistrates of Rawalpindi District

The district continued to be the unit of administration after Indian partition and independence of Pakistan in 1947. Initially, the role of the district collector remained largely unchanged, except for the separation of most judicial powers to judicial officers of the district.

Pre-independence

District administration in Pakistan is a legacy of the British Raj. District collectors were members of the British Indian Civil Service and were charged with supervising general administration in the district. [6]

Warren Hastings introduced the office of the district collector in 1772. Sir George Campbell, lieutenant-governor of Bengal from 1871 to 1874, intended "to render the heads of districts no longer the drudges of many departments and masters of none, but in fact the general controlling authority over all departments in each district." [7] [8] [9]

Deputy Commissioners of Attock (erstwhile Campbellpur) district, Punjab, Pakistan Deputy Commissioners of Attock (erstwhile Campbellpur) district, Punjab, Pakistan.jpg
Deputy Commissioners of Attock (erstwhile Campbellpur) district, Punjab, Pakistan

The office of a collector/DC during the British rule in Indian subcontinent held multiple responsibilities as collector, he was the head of the revenue organization, charged with registration, alteration, and partition of holdings; the settlement of disputes; the management of indebted estates; loans to agriculturists, and famine relief. As district magistrate, he exercised general supervision over the inferior courts and in particular, directed the police work. [10] The office was meant to achieve the "peculiar purpose" of collecting revenue and of keeping the peace. The superintendent of police (SP), inspector general of jails, the surgeon general, the divisional forest officer (DFO) and the chief engineer (CE) had to inform the collector of every activity in their departments. [7] [8] [9]

Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, no native was eligible to become a district collector, but with the introduction of open competitive examinations for the British Indian Civil Service, the office was opened to natives. Anandaram Baruah, an eminent scholar of Sanskrit and the sixth Indian and the first Assamese ICS officer, became the third Indian to be appointed a district magistrate, the first two being Romesh Chandra Dutt and Sripad Babaji Thakur respectively. [7] [8] [9]

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of deputy commissioner vary from province to province. In Pakistan, these responsibilities changed with the passage of time. [6] However, now the local government law of all provisional governments is similar to a large extent to the law of Punjab Province. Below some of the duties of a deputy commissioner are given:

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Punjab Civil Administration Act 2017". punjablaws.gov.pk. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  2. Federal Public Service Commission
  3. 1 2 "Deputy commissioners to replace DCOs in Punjab - Pakistan - Dunya News". dunyanews.tv. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  4. "DCs blank about powers". The Nation. 2017-01-11. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  5. "Commissioners, DCs posted in Sindh". The Nation. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  6. 1 2 Noorani, Tasneem (2017-06-22). "District magistrate". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  7. 1 2 3 Maheshwari, S.R. (2000). Indian Administration (6th Edition). New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Private Ltd. pp. 573–597. ISBN   9788125019886.
  8. 1 2 3 Singh, G.P. (1993). Revenue administration in India: A case study of Bihar. Delhi: Mittal Publications. pp. 50–124. ISBN   978-8170993810.
  9. 1 2 3 Laxmikanth, M. (2014). Governance in India (2nd Edition). Noida: McGraw Hill Education. pp. 6.1–6.6. ISBN   978-9339204785.
  10. Report of the Indian Statutory Commission Volume 1 - Survey. Presented by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. May, 1930 AND Volume 2 - Recommendations Presented to the Secretary of State for the Home Department to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. May 1930. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1930. p. 255.