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.

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.

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

ICT Incumbent name Predecessor
Islamabad Irfan Nawaz Memon *M Hamzah Shafqaat

*Capt Mushtaq Ah

Punjab Province

DistrictIncumbent DC Predecessor
Attock (Campbellpur)Rao Atif PAS Zulqrnain langrial (PCS/BS19)
BahawalnagarCapt (Retd) Muhammad Waseem
BahawalpurIrfan Ali Kathia PMS
BhakkarZulfiqar Bhoon Imran Hamid
ChakwalQurat ul Ain Capt. Retd Bilal Hashim
Chiniot Farooq Rashid Capt. Nadeem Nasir
Dera Ghazi KhanShahid Zaman Lak Hamza Salick
Faisalabad (Lyallpur)Imran hamid DMG Engr. Ali Shehzad

DMG

GujranwalaSaira Umar Danish Afzal
GujratCapt Rizwan Qadeer Mehtab Waseem Azhar
HafizabadAllah Ditta PCS/PMS Muhammad Asif Raza PAS
JhangAhmad Kamal Shahid Abbas PMS
JhelumNouman Hafeez Nouman Hafeez PMS
KasurIrshad Bhatti PMS Fayyaz Ahmed Mohal PMS
KhanewalShahid Farid Salman Khan PMS
KhushabZeeshan Shabbir Capt Aurangzeb Haider Khan
LahoreRafia Hyder

PAS

Dr Umer Chattha

DMG/PAS

LayyahAzfar Zia
LodhranAgha Zaheer Abbas PMS Capt. Shoaib Ali
Mandi BahauddinShahid Imran Marth Shahid Imran Marth
MianwaliMuhammad Umair Umar javed
MultanCapt Retd Qadeer
MuzaffargarhAli Anan Qamar Musa Raza
NarowalShah rukh Niazi PMS Imtiaz Shahid PMS
Nankana SahibAhmar Naik Zahid Pervaiz
OkaraZahid Pervaiz Capt(R) Muhammad Ali Ijaz
PakpattanImtiaz Ahmad khan khichi
Rahim Yar KhanMusa Raza Mehtab Wasim
RajanpurArif Raheem Jamil A jamil
RawalpindiDr Hassan Waqar Cheema Capt. Shoaib Ali
Sahiwal (Montgomery)Kamran khan Awais Malik
SargodhaCapt. Shaoib Ali Flt. Lt. Imran Qureshi
SheikhupuraRana Shakeel Aslam PMS
Sialkotabdullah Khurramm niazi Messam Abbas
Toba Tek SinghZahid Sohail Umer javed
VehariSafdar Virk PCS Khidar Afzal Gujjar DC Kot Addu is mower Abbas Bukhari PCS 18}

List of serving commissioners

Islamabad, ICT, federal capital

Chief commissioner ICT Incumbent name Predecessor
Islamabad Capt. Noor ul Amin *Aamir Ali Ahmed *Joudat Ayaz

Punjab Province

Division Name
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

Division Name
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

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

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:

  • To supervise and monitor the discharge of duties by the Assistant Commissioners in the district.[1]
  • Coordination of work of all the sister offices and public facilities in the district.[1]
  • Efficient use of public resources for the integrated development and effective service delivery.[1]
  • To supervise and coordinate the implementation of the government policies, instructions and guidelines of the Government.[1]
  • To support and facilitate the offices and public facilities in the district.[1]
  • May convene a meeting for purposes of maintaining public order and public safety and safeguarding public or private properties in the District; and, the decisions taken in the meeting shall be executed by all concerned accordingly.[1]
  • Deputy commissioner is able to hold court sessions in criminal cases as justice of the peace, and monitors the performance of the assistant commissioner within the district.[3]

See also

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.
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