CHITRAL: The councillors belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf joined other members in the district council here on Thursday to condemn the provincial government for doing away with the district tier of local government system.

The members also passed a unanimous resolution demanding its restoration.

Presided over by convener Maulana Abdul Shakur, the session turned into an anti-government meeting on the issue of the recent amendments in the local government law when district nazim Maghfirat Shah raised a point of order drawing the attention of the house to the matter.

The nazim said that the PTI government had already divested the powers of the local government representatives making them subservient to the district administration.

Rahmat Ghazi, Nabek advocate and Yaqub Khan of PTI and Maulana Mehmoodul Hassan, Sher Mohammad, Maulana Jamshed and Maulana Abdur Rahman claimed that the district tier was abolished in violation of the Constitution, which should be challenged in the court.

They said that the government had weakened the local government system during the past four years, which was crystal clear from the frequent amendments in the Local Government Act 2013.

In the unanimously passed resolution tabled by Rahmat Elahi, the house expressed solidarity with the Local Government Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had decided to approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan to undo the recent amendment in the law.

The house was also united on the matter of release of funds for the annual development programme by the deputy commissioner and district officer (finance). They complained that the development works had been virtually suspended in their respective wards.

They criticised the bureaucracy for undue delay in the approval of schemes which had earlier been approved by the district development advisory committee four months ago.

The members also expressed their anguish over the dilapidated condition of roads in the district.

They said that Chitral-Booni, Sheshi Koh, Garam Chashma, Torkhow, Laspur and Yarkhoon roads were in bad shape.

The alleged misappropriation of sports funds also came under discussion in the session.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2019