Local government administration in the district has two major components:

1. The Local Government Department headed by an Assistant Director.
2. Local Government Institutions.

The Assistant Director, Local Government (ADLG) communicates with the District Council (representing the rural areas) and the Municipal/town committee (representing urban areas).

As stated above, chairmen and members of the union councils, town committee, and municipal committee are elected representatives. The Chief Officer and secretaries are government employees, while the local bodies may employ staff from their own resources and grants received from the government.

Functions to be performed by local bodies are laid down in the Balochistan Local Government Ordinance, 1980. The list is quite long and includes most things that need to be done to improve the quality of life and selectively contribute to socio-economic development. The major concerns of local bodies, as listed in the 1980 Ordinance are; agriculture development, economic welfare, cultural activities, education, livestock and dairy development, public health, public safety, public works, and rural development.

The functions actually performed are, however, not as extensive as the might suggest. The local bodies' main involvement is with water supply, sanitation and public safety (fire fighting). Only the municipal committee of Sibi is also engaged in street/path improvement and cultural activities. The overall performance of local government bodies is not satisfactory, chiefly due to lack of finance.

Infuential persons in the villages or urban centres do not seem to openly involved in the decision-making process at the lower tiers of the government system. Their views, however, matter most in shaping the ultimate decisions made at lower tier. Still, in asserting their views these influential people do take the commoners’ views into consideration.

The union council is the lowest tier in the local government system. The district has 13 union councils, seven in Sibi tehsil, and six in Harnai tehsil. Only one union council has its own source of income (octroi, etc) besides government grants. All others depend on government grants only, which are meagre and irregular. They have no development program of their own, nor funds for this purpose. However, they perform a role in attracting government’s attention to local development problems by communicating these to the appropriate forum. They also supervise the execution of development projects of the Local Government Rural Development Department (LGRDD) within their respective jurisdiction.

According to the district council, a total of 90 development projects were completed in the jurisdiction of the district’s thirteen union councils in the period 1991-95. These projects included nullah (drains for irrigation) improvement, digging of wells and construction of tanks for drinking water, toilet construction, construction of shingle roads, street pavement, construction of "bunds" (protection walls) for control of land erosion and the construction of union council offices. These projects were financed by LGRDD, but the union councils played an important role at various stages of these projects. According to data provided by the union councils, these projects were completed at a total cost of Rs 2.63 millions. All of the union councils secretaries have complained of funding problems because of which they cannot play their assigned role. However, despite this problem, the union councils are not entirely dormant, as indicated by the list of LGRDD schemes completed during 1991-95 in rural areas. Union councils do play an important role in rural uplift, by mobilising the concerned agencies to that end. Strengthening them financially can improve their performance.

The district has one town committee, at Harnai tehsil headquarters. Officially it has to perform a range of functions, but in actual fact, it does not take care of most of these. The committee has its own sources of income and also receives government grants. The committee has a chairman and elected members. It has full time paid staff.

Sibi M.C. is the only one municipal committee in the district. It was established in 1975. Its average annual income over the period from 1991-92 to 1995-96 was Rs. 6.5 million. The income over 1995-96 was; Rs 7.5 million. The chief source of income is octroi, which accounted for almost 90 percent of total income in 1995-96. The Municipal Committee used to receive an annual grant of Rs. 700,000 from the provincial government, but it has not received it since 1993-94. Like the town committee, the municipal committee has a wide range of functions it is responsible for, but in actual fact its activities are confined to a few tasks, including sanitation, street/path improvement, fire fighting and water supply.

The Sibi district council's office is located at Sibi town. Its jurisdiction extends to all areas under the district’s union councils, i.e. all rural areas of Sibi district. Its members are drawn from rural and urban local bodies, as described earlier in this chapter. Officially assigned functions of the district council are given in detail in Annex 3. Its actual activities are far fewer. Its only source of income is the zila (district) tax.

The district council plays an important role as a medium between the union council and the district, divisional and provincial administration and as a venue where the different union councils representatives meet.

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