Institutional History Ziarat
Before acquiring status of a district in July, 1986, the areas now covered by Ziarat district were included in Sibi district. Therefore, it shares the history of local government with Sibi district. Thus relevant information is reproduced from Sibi profile as below and is to be taken to apply to Ziarat.
Residency, an historic point at Ziarat.
Before 1947 the local government system in Sibi district was governed by the Bazar Regulations introduced in 1910 by the British Government. The members of local bodies were nominated members and they were administrated by Deputy Commissioners. During 1947-58, local bodies stayed inactive in Sibi district like in the rest of the Province. Local bodies were activated in 1958 with the introduction of the Basic Democracies Order of 1959 issued by the martial law regime of General Muhammad Ayub Khan. The B.D. System had four tiers. These were 1) Union council, Tehsil council, District council, Divisional council, in the case of rural areas, and 2) Town committee, Municipal committee, District council, and Divisional council in the case of urban areas. Thus district council and divisional council were common to rural and urban local bodies.
The Basic Democracies system was amended and superseded by the present system introduced through Balochistan Local Government Ordinance of 1980. It is a two tier system comprising union councils and district councils for rural areas, and town committees/municipal committees and district council for urban areas. See Annex 4 for the functions of the Local Government institutions.
The Ziarat district has one district council, four union councils and one municipal committee. Membership of a Union Council is by election, through universal adult franchise. The same applies to the municipal committee. The members of the district council are drawn from elected members of union councils. The elected chairman of the municipal committee is ex-officio member of the district council.