RAWALPINDI, March 5: The Rawalpindi Tehsil Assembly members on Tuesday unanimously boycotted the assembly session against the alleged non-cooperative attitude of the Tehsil municipal officer (TMO) and warned to present en masse resignations if he was not replaced immediately.

They came out on the busy Liaqat Road and blocked the traffic for some time. Some of them lay down on the road, complaining that they were not given the respect they deserved as members of the Tehsil council by the bureaucracy.

On the request of Tehsil Nazim Raja Hamid Nawaz and Naib Nazim Sajjad Khan, the members ended the blockade, but gathered in the lawn outside the Liaqat Hall for about two hours.

Despite continuous efforts by the Nazim and Naib Nazim, they refused to end their protest. However, later, they entered the hall and signed a resolution against the TMO, which was unanimously passed by the House.

It requested the provincial government to immediately replace the official concerned.

A 17-member committee was formed to discuss the issue with the Punjab governor and ensure prompt action on the previous resolutions passed by the House. The committee members said they would also approach the chief executive to apprise him of the alleged conspiracies of the bureaucracy in a bid to fail the new system.

The members complained they had been passing resolutions and presenting their problems before the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) officials, but to no avail.

“It is not only the problem of the Rawalpindi Tehsil, but a matter of success or failure for the new system of governance. We have to keep the prestige of the House intact against the conspiracies of the bureaucracy, which has been trying to keep the elected representatives in the dark so that they can hold on to their traditional powers. Unless the TMO has been replaced by a rational person and the rest of the TMA officials change their attitudes, holding sessions of the council will be a futile exercise”, Rana Sohail Pasha, Naib Nazim of Union Council 10, said.

Many of the elected representatives wanted to submit resolutions about various city issues for the approval of the House, but could not do so as the hardliners insisted the speaker to postpone the session till the resolution of their problems.

The speaker tried to convince them to remain patient, but had to adjourn the House till March 13, when the House refused to take up any other item on the agenda. Earlier, the House passed a unanimous resolution against anti-Muslims riots in India and called for stopping these immediately.

Naib Nazim Masood Hussain Shah from Union Council 24 told Dawn that toll tax was being collected illegally on Kurri Road, but the TMA, despite having received directives from the District Nazim and Tehsil Nazim, had failed to stop it. He said he had been raising the issue at every session, but to no avail.