MANSEHRA: The chairmen of village and neighbourhood councils on Tuesday announced that they would move the Peshawar High Court against the “denial” of development and non-development funds to them by the provincial government in the financial year 2022-23.

“The provincial government is bound by the Constitution to release 20 per cent of its annual development budget to local bodies, but neither the last PTI government nor its successor gave away that money to tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last fiscal,” chairman of the Safada village council Basharat Ali Swati told reporters at the end of a meeting attended by local body heads here.

The participants resented the withholding of the non-development budget of village and neighbourhood councils, which, they said, caused financial problems for them.

Mr Swati said the government didn’t pay a single penny under the head of honorarium, utility bills and office rents in the previous finical year.

Insist no govt sincere about development of LG system

He said owners of the buildings rented by village council chairmen for their offices had formally asked them to leave their premises over nonpayment of dues.

“Local body heads haven’t cleared their dues since they assumed their offices almost one and a half years ago,” he said.

On the occasion, chairman of the Lassan Nawab village council Malik Mumtaz said local body heads had hired a panel of lawyers to take the caretaker government, local government minister and secretary and finance department to the Abbottabad Circuit Bench of the Peshawar High Court over funding denial.

He said the governments had never been sincere about the development of the LG system, so local bodies couldn’t execute even a single development scheme since their formation early last year.

Mr Mumtaz said the government didn’t hold election to the offices of the tehsil council presiding officers causing non-implementation of the LG system in the province.

STUDENT ENROLMENTS: District education officer Ashfaq Khan Jadoon on Tuesday claimed that Mansehra had reported the highest student enrolments in the second shift of government schools in the province.

During a function here, the DEO said the department achieved the enrolment milestone due to sincere efforts of the principals and headmasters of government primary, middle and high schools in the district.

Mr Jadoon said there was room for the implementation of the second shift policy, so school heads should mobilise parent-teacher councils for it.

He said the “merit” should be strictly followed for school appointments and resolution of issues.

Chairman of the All Primary Teachers Association Bashir Yusufzai, who was also in attendance, said the teachers were working wholeheartedly to further the cause of formal learning across the district.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2023