BAHAWALPUR, Nov 25: Local political and social circles have expressed their anguish on ignoring Bahawalpur district while expanding the Punjab cabinet.

They said the district was once again ignored as no politician from Bahawalpur was included in the federal cabinet. They claimed that such actions added to the sense of deprivation of the people of the area. On the other hand, districts of Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar of the defunct Bahawalpur division had been given due representation in both federal and provincial cabinets.

They said due to non-representation of Bahawalpur district in the cabinets, people’s genuine problems would remain unresolved.

Of the 10 MPAs elected from the district, Makhdoom Iftikhar Ahmad Gilani of Uch Sharif, Sahibzada Muzamil Abbasi of Ahmadpur East, Sitara Fayyaz of Bahawalpur belonged to the ruling PML-Q, Ahmad Nawaz and Latif Aaqil of Khairpur Tamewali tehsil to the National Alliance, an ally of the ruling party, three to the PML-N and two to the PPP (parliamentarians).

FUNDS DEMANDED: Councillors elected against reserved seats for women, labour and minority demanded at a tehsil council meeting on Tuesday funds for the development projects proposed by them.

They protested that they were being ignored while allocating development funds.

Ironically, despite their protest neither convener nor tehsil Nazim assured them of allocation of funds.