HYDERABAD, May 4: The issue of conversion of an amenity plot - Ayesha Park - into a commercial plaza dominated proceedings of the district council on Tuesday. Some members also walked out of the session after the convener refused to adopt a resolution on the matter. The convener referred the matter to the district Nazim.

Earlier, the resolution, tabled by Shahnaz Baqai, had been deferred by the convener. Tabling the resolution on behalf of Ms Baqai on Tuesday, Mohammad Yousuf Qureshi said that the Taluka Municipal Administration, Latifabad, could not convert the amenity plot into a commercial plaza.

He said that the park had been inaugurated by then Governor S. M. Abbasi in 1980s and named it Markaz-i-Khawateen. He claimed that the defunct Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had illegally constructed shops on the plot. He said that now the Latifabad taluka Nazim had floated an advertisement in newspapers for the plaza.

He proposed that construction of Markaz-i-Khawateen for women's welfare should be made part of the development plan in fiscal 2004-05. Supporting him, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan and Qazi Qadeer said that it was negligence on part of elected representatives to maintain the park that was why shops were constructed there. They however said that the remaining portion of the park could still be utilized for women's welfare.

Mr Qureshi and some other members staged a walkout after the convener did not adopt the resolution. Convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan said that the members could only propose recommendations to the TMA. He added that the members should propose to the TMA that the plot's purpose should not be altered.

He said that the Sindh Local Government Ordinance permitted union and taluka councils to generate funds. Rauf Jafri demanded an inquiry into the murder of two residents of his union council, Zubair and Imran, who were shot dead in Karachi on the eve of Eid Milad-un-Nabi.

The district council adopted a resolution of Rana Mehmood, demanding payment of compensation to people of Khisana Mori affected by canal breaches. He said that the people were living in a school. Mr Qureshi's resolution appreciating services of Hyderabad Civil Hospital medical superintendent Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi and condemning conspiracies being hatched by a Sindh minister to get him transferred was also passed by the council.

Mir Suleman Talpur informed the convener that railway authorities had subjected residents of Kumhar Para to violence on account of encroachment. He said that the problem of encroachment should be resolved amicably.

The convener also prevented Dr Ayaz Arain from raising the issue of the City Taluka Council which had rejected a district council resolution against the taluka Nazim, observing that it would lead to a confrontation between the two councils.

Meanwhile, talking to journalists after walking out of the session, Mr Qureshi, Abdul Qadeer Qazi, Rana Mehmood, Sumaira Akhlaq and other members criticized the Latifabad TMA for launching the commercial scheme in place of the park. They said that according to assembly traditions, the chair could not take decisions on a resolution in absence of its mover.

They regretted that the board office roundabout scheme was also being deliberately abandoned to launch a commercial plaza scheme there.