District Council Peshawar concerned at stoppage of uplift funds

PESHAWAR: Condemning the Indian aggression against Pakistan, the members of the District Council at a session on Tuesday expressed concern at the stoppage of development funds and government's apathy towards their problems, including payment of monthly honorarium to members of local councils.

District Naib Nazim Qasim Ali Shah convened the session, which also condemned the Indian aggression. The councillors offered fateha for the martyred soldiers and civilians. The council also passed a resolution extending support to the security forces and condemning the Indian aggression.

The councillors criticised the government for deliberately failing the system and discrediting them among the voters. District Councillor Shamsul Bari said though members of provincial and national assemblies were getting salaries, this right was being denied to the councillors. "If the lawmakers consider honorarium as wastage of national wealth they should pass a law to put an end to salaries for all elected representatives," he argued.

Another councillor, Abdul Malik, termed the government decision to stop the district development funds insult to the mandate of the people. He said the government should abolish the local governments through an act of parliament if it was not ready to devolve power to the garssroots. During his speech, a councillor pointed out that not a single government official had attended the session.

Jamaat-e-Islami councillor Khalid Waqas said that stoppage of honorarium and development funds were the negation of Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision. He said the development schemes in all areas were on hold due to the non-availability of funds. He suggested holding another session outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly as a mark of protest.

The majority of the members supported Khalid Waqas' proposal of holding next session outside the KP Assembly. Naimat Khan, a PTI councillor, said that he was with the opposition over the funds issue and supported the protest outside assembly. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers were a hurdle in devolution.

ANP's councillor Mehreen lamented that female members were not provided proper funds. She said that they were told that women were on the reserved seats and should not get funds equivalent to their male colleagues.

Khurshid Alam said new local government system was being introduced to replace the existing one. He said that a huge amount of public resources had been spent on the existing system. He asked the government to introduce reforms in the existing system instead of bringing a new one.

Pakistan People's Party's Jamil Khan said that development funds for 2016 and 2017 had not yet been approved. "The opposition leader also shared responsibility for the failure of the local government system," said Rehman Afzal, adding, he did not take any step for improving or protecting the system.

Rahamdil Nawaz of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) criticized the district nazim for not attending the council meeting. He said the meeting should have been convened soon after tensions developed between Pakistan and India.

Opposition members led by Saeed Zahir burnt utility bill in the District Council hall and staged a brief protest against the government. They said that consumers had received inflated bills that are indicative of the government's failure.