SWABI: The tehsil municipal administration is struggling to manage its affairs due to the delay in the passage of its budget for the current year.

The TMA officials blame the delay on confrontation among the tehsil council’s members and litigation over the passage of no-confidence motion against nazim and his deputy.

They told Dawn that unavailability of funds due to the delay in the budget’s approval by the council had virtually crippled their activities.

The officials feared that hurdles to the normal functioning of the local government would cause the TMA more troubles.

They said work on many development projects in the tehsil faced suspension due to shortage of funds.

The officials however urged the relevant authorities to pay heed to their misery and take corrective measures without delay.

The tehsil has a coalition government formed by seven parties united under the banner of the Swabi Democratic Alliance. However, the government has been very fragile since the day it came into being.

Nazim Wahid Shah belongs to the Jamaat-i-Islami, while naib nazim Gohar Khan is a key leader of the ANP.

Three months ago, councillors of the JI, PTI, PML-N and PPP supported by some other members decided in the pre-budget meeting that the unequal distribution of development funds by nazim and naib-nazim was not acceptable to them.

And when the budget session was convened in August, the opposition announced naib nazim Gohar won’t be allowed to chair the sitting. The budget session was later marred by protests, accusations and counter-accusations with the opposition blocking the budget’s announcement.

On Aug 28, the opposition members led by Iqbalzada, a relative of the nazim, moved a no-confidence motion after the JI members revolted against their own nazim with the support of PTI, PML-N and other councillors.

On Sept 3, the nazim survived an attack his nephew suffered injuries prompting the two to name councillors Jamshed Khan and Iqbalzada as suspects.

The no-confidence motion turned out to be a success but the nazim and naib nazim challenged it in the Peshawar High Court and secured a stay order against their ouster.

MAN KILLS BROTHER: A man killed his brother over a land dispute in Chota Lahor tehsil here on Monday.

The police said they had begun investigation after booking Zamin Khan for killing Ramaiz Khan.

They however said the suspect wasn’t arrested by night.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017