MANSEHRA: Chairmen of the tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils on Monday took out a rally warning the provincial government against further changing the Local Government Act, 2013.

“The government has proposed an amendment to the LG Act to appoint unelected men as presiding officers to tehsil councils,” tehsil council chairman Sheikh Mohammad Shafi told protesters here.

Participants marched from outside the press club on Kutchery Road and came back shouting slogans.

Mr Shafi said any such amendment to the LG law was an attempt to steal the powers of elected members but that would never be accepted.

Tehsil council heads claim govt wants to appoint unelected men to local bodies

The other speakers, including village and neighbourhood council chairmen Malik Malik Mohammad Mumtaz, Basharat Ali SwatI, Javed Lodhi l, Asif Khan and Malik Wali Mohammad and tehsil councillor Nasira Bibi, warned if the government tried to impose unelected people on elected LB members, street protests would resist such bids.

He said the government should grant powers to local governments and release development funds instead of weakening them.

ACCIDENT: Two people were killed and 36 suffered critical injuries when a passenger coach they travelled in fell into a ravine in the Harban Das area of Lower Kohistan district on Sunday night.

The police shifted the injured to a nearby health centre with two declared dead by the doctors, according to deputy superintendent of police in Upper Kohistan Masood Khan.

He said the coach carried 41 passengers and was en route to Rawalpindi from Gilgit.

The DSP said the accident occurred as the driver lost its control while negotiating a sharp turn.

He said the injured were later referred to the district headquarters hospital in Dasu and other nearby health facilities for further treatment.

VACANCIES: Representatives of local governments in the Sari Gorya area of Oghi tehsil on Saturday demanded the filling of vacant teaching positions in the area’s only higher secondary school, which serves both male and female students.

“Students are forced to study in just three rooms under miserable conditions, while the construction of the remaining school portion has been stalled for many years,” village councillor Alam Zeb told reporters.

Accompanied by a group of locals, he said that the Government Higher Secondary School in Sari Gorya operated without adequate resources, as 24 out of 34 teaching positions had been vacant for several years.

He also complained the school functioned with only three rooms, while the remaining building had yet to be put up.

Mr Zeb pointed out that the government had previously awarded a contract to a firm for the construction of the school building to better accommodate students but the firm abandoned work halfway two years ago.

He warned if issues were not addressed, residents would take to the streets.

An official of the education department said that construction work was suspended due to lack of funds.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2024