FAISALABAD, Oct 16: Members of the Jinnah Town have leveled million of rupees corruption charges against the town nazim backed by Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N). The allegations were made in a session of town on Thursday. The nazim, however, denied the allegations.

Monitoring Committee (regulation) Chairman Saeed Sajid, once considered a close friend of Town Nazim Shehzad Malik, told the session the nazim had enlisted hand-picked contractors after receiving commission from them. He alleged the nazim received five to seven per cent commission on every development schemes. He asked the town nazim and all contractors to prove their innocence by swearing on the Holy Quran.

Different members of the town also endorsed the demand and asked the chair that all contractors must be summoned in the next session.

Shehzad Malik was elected town nazim with the backing of the PML-N and did not quit his party though he had been pressured by the previous government. He faced wrath of the former regime as he was stripped off his power and Adnan Tariq, son of Lieutenant Gen Tariq Pervez (r), was appointed development projects coordinator.

Nawaz Malik, brother of Shehzad, is MPA from PP-71 and a close associate of Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

Sources said the Jinnah Town administration had awarded contracts for 147 development projects worth Rs140 million last month. The projects included the construction and repair of roads, rehabilitation and improvement of parks, drainage, town offices and residences.

Mr Sajid said blue-eyed contractors had been enlisted to execute development projects and tender forms were also given to only selected contractors only according to the wishes of nazim. The town administration enlisted nearly 43 contractors recently, sources said.

A town councillor said public money was being spent on projects meant for officials. He alleged the town nazim also caused financial loss to the public money by distributing streetlights to his voters and supporters of PP 71 before the last general elections. Most areas of the town were ignored though they were in darkness and in dire need of this facility, he said.

The convener did not give any verdict regarding the allegations leveled by Mr Sajid and move for remaining agenda.

The town also passed a resolution unanimously demanding immediate end of unscheduled power outages.

Town Nazim Malik told Dawn only Mr Sajid had leveled corruption charges against him as he was trying to blackmail him, reasons best known to him. He said he did nothing wrong and contracts had been awarded according to the prescribed rules.

He said all members were silent when he leveled corruption charges against him.

“Sajid will drop all corruption charges against me if I allow him in my group,” he said.