City Districts of Pakistan

A City District in Pakistan is a district that consists primarily or entirely of a major city or large metropolitan area. While there are 117 Districts, there are only ten City Districts. A city district may contain subdivisions called Towns and Union Councils.

Administrative structure

The three-tier system of government in Karachi exemplifies the administrative structure of a City District:

The Karachi City District is a three-tiered system comprising the City District Government (CDG), the Town Municipal Administration (TMA) and the Union Administration (UA). When setting up the City District Government and TMA, effort was made to enable the following, where technical factors allowed: the principle of subsidiarity to be followed in determining which planning and municipal services/functions are assigned to the City District Government and which ones to TMA. [1]

List of City Districts

The five original City Districts

The Federal capital and four provincial capitals were the five original City Districts.

• Karachi district [2]
• Lahore district [3]
• Peshawar district
• Quetta district
• Islamabad Capital Territory

Non-capital City Districts

More recently, the large metropolitan cities of Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, and Rawalpindi have also been given City District status.

History

City Districts were introduced in 2000, during the administration of President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf announced holding of local government elections, which began from December 2000 at the Union Council level and come to a completion with District Council elections in July, 2001. Announcing the programme for devolution of power and responsibility, at Chagai auditorium, he stated that voters’ age would be lowered by three years, from the from 21 years to 18 years, to broaden the voter base and promote greater participation by young people. Elections were held in two stages: first, the Union Council level, commencing in December 2000 in 15 districts, and subsequently in February, March, April and May, with roughly twenty-five districts going to the polls each time. In the second stage, the district assemblies’ elections were held countrywide in July 2001.

External links

• The City District as envisaged by the Local Government Plan 2000 and the Local Government Ordinance 2001. [4]
• Several additional cities given City District status [5]

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