LAHORE, April 12: District Nazim Amer Mahmood announced on Friday that all union council offices in the city district were being converted into campaign offices for the president.

He also defended his city government’s role in organizing the public meeting addressed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the city district government had only provided transport to the people for participation in the public meeting. For this, he said, it had received Rs20 million from the provincial government.

Details of the expenditure on the meeting, which he said, was much more, were still being compiled for approval by the district council. The law, he said, allowed the city district government to spend money on a reception for the president.

He said the city government had received a donation of 200,000 juice packs for the public meeting. Chairs, too, he said had been made available on a generous discount. Details of expenditure on union council level, he said, had not been consolidated so far.

He said union councils would be persuaded to muster support for the president. Like-minded councillors, he said, would not only get to recruit two sanitary workers each, but also get a Rs150,000 development allocation each for the next financial year.

He said Rs100,000 per councillor for this purpose would be contributed by the city government and Rs50,000 provided by the town council concerned.

Presently, he said, he was trying to maximize the number of identity cards issued to enable the people to cast votes in the referendum.

He said he would meet the Nadra chairman during his visit to the provincial metropolis on Saturday. He said the union councils would transport voters for referendum.

The Nazim said that the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy had yet to submit an application for holding a public meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan. A decision on such an application, he said, would be taken in accordance with the circumstances. The ARD leadership, he alleged, had a habit of toying with the law.

He said the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Nazim, Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan, had assured him of his support for the president. He would meet Ravi Town Nazim Aftab Asghar Dar on Saturday to seek a similar pledge.