Non-release of funds: LG reps to launch street agitation against KP govt

MANSEHRA: The local government representatives on Thursday decided to launch a street agitation against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for not releasing development funds to village and neighbourhood councils across the province.

“We have decided to protest peacefully outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to communicate our message to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan regarding his party’s failure to provide rights and funds to local governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Basharat Ali Swati, the chairman of Local Governments’ Ittehad, told reporters here.

Accompanied by office-bearers of the Ittehad, he said that around three years had passed since the local government elections in the province, but they were still being deprived of their development funds and the rights enshrined in the Local Governments Act 2013.

“The Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who often talks about rights and good governance, is hesitant to give us our due rights and funds for development schemes in our respective councils,” Basharat Swati said.

He added that the chairmen of village and neighbourhood councils would stage protests in their respective councils across the district.“The chairmen of village and neighborhood councils, who met earlier today, decided to hold demonstrations across the district to register their protest against the government,” he added.

He said that their central body in Peshawar, which met under the chairmanship of Hamayatullah earlier this week, had decided to hold peaceful protests outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on October 30 and outside the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar on November 5.

“We will present a memorandum to the superintendent of the jail and follow legal procedures to meet Khan to inform him about the injustice being done to us by the KP government,” Swati said.