Assistant commissioner (Pakistan)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Assistant Commissioner (abbreviated as "AC") is a administrative head, revenue officer and representative of government in tehsil or an administrative unit of a district.[1] He belongs to the commission of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) or Provincial Management Service (PMS).[2] They performed their duties under the supervision of a depury commissioner.
Tehsil administration in Pakistan is a legacy of the British Raj. Tehsil collectors were members of the British Indian civil service and were charged with supervising general administration in the Tehsil.[2]
Warren Hastings introduced the offices of the district and tehsil collectors in 1772. Sir George Campbell, lieutenant-governor of Bengal from 1871-1874, intended "to render the heads of tehsils no longer the drudges of many departments and masters of none, but in fact the general controlling authority over all departments in each tehsil."[3][4][5]
The office of a collector 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 tehsil magistrate, he exercised general supervision over the inferior courts and in particular, directed the police work.[6] 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 Sub-divisional forest officer (SDFO) and the chief engineer (CE) had to inform the collector of every activity in their departments.[3][4][5]
Until the later part of the nineteenth century, no native was eligible to become a tehsil 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 and tehsil magistrate, the first two being Romesh Chandra Dutt and Sripad Babaji Thakur respectively.[3][4][5]
The Tehsil continued to be the unit of administration after Indian Partition and Creation of Pakistan in 1947. Initially, the role of the tehsil collector remained largely unchanged, except for the separation of most judicial powers to judicial officers of the tehsil. But during the Presidency of Pervaz Musharraf, the office of assistant commissioner was replaced with Deputy District Officer Revenue (DDOR).[2] After his presidency, in 2008, provincial governments of Pakistan again established this office through constitutional amendments.[7][8]