Page 85 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

By 1964, the Deputy Commissioner was still assisted by 2 Sub-Divisional
Officers; one each stationed at Alipur and Layyah. The Sub-Divisional officers
also exercised powers of Assistant Collectors subject to the control of the
Deputy Commissioner/District Collector. There was slight variation in the
strength of revenue staff though, as is evident from the following table:

Tehsildar Naib-Tehsildar Qanungo Patwari/
Assistant Patwari
Muzaffargarh 1 3 10 116
Layyah 1 1 6 61
Alipur 1 1 9 91
Kot Addu 1 1 6 66

The Deputy Commissioner was still the District Magistrate and was assisted
in magisterial work by an Additional District Magistrate, one General
Assistant, one Treasury Officer and two Sub-Divisional Magistrates at Alipur
and Layyah respectively. The Revenue Assistant, being an Extra Assistant
Commissioner, was also invested with the powers of a Magistrate and was
accordingly entrusted with the magisterial work by the District Magistrate.
All those magistrates exercised 1st Class powers while the District
Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate and Sub-Divisional Magistrate,
Alipur had powers under Section 30 and Section 260 of the Criminal
Procedure Code, 1898 too. They also had the powers to hear appeals from
the orders of the 2 and 3 Class Magistrates in their respective
nd
rd
jurisdictions. The General Assistant, Muzaffargarh too was exercising powers
under Section 30 of the Criminal Procedure Code. All the Tehsildars and
rd
nd
Naib-Tehsildars were invested with the powers of 2 and 3 Class
Magistrates respectively.
The system underwent a drastic change in 2001 with the promulgation of
the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, commonly referred to as the
Devolution of Power Plan, whereby the office of the Deputy Commissioner
was abolished and replaced with the District Coordination Officer (DCO),
under the overall command of an elected District Nazim. The district
departments were grouped into 9 sets, each headed by an Executive District
Officer, who were in turn answerable and subordinate to the District
Coordination Officer. The executive magistracy was also abolished and the
head of the District Administration ceased to be the District Magistrate.
With the promulgation of the Punjab Civil Administration Act 2017, the office
of the Deputy Commissioner was revived on January 1, 2017, albeit in a
different form. However, he was not invested with the powers of the District
Magistrate.
At present, the Deputy Commissioner is assisted by 3 Additional Deputy
Commissioners (Revenue, General and Finance) as well as an Assistant

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