July 27, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16,1423

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HARIPUR, July 26: All the women councillors of Tehsil Council staged a walkout when the men members opposed to share development funds with them here on Thursday.

The council session was presided over by Amin  Khan  Badhora, convened for  distribution  of development budget among the council members. There were 12 women councillors and two labour councillors who were elected on the special seats of Tehsil Council last year.

The house, earlier this week, approved an outlay of Rs 78.544 million for the current fiscal year with a net allocation of Rs 143.039 million as development fund out of which a sum of Rs 11.760 million has been allocated for new schemes.

In Thursday’s session when the house debated on giving funds for the development schemes for women councilors, Raja Zubair, Shafiq Tanoli, Malik Hanif, Shahjehan Abbasi and Ghulam Jan opposed the idea and suggested that women councillors must focus and utilize the funds out of Rs 0.746 million specifically allocated for women development from the budget rather than demanding more.

The women councillors, supported by some of the members who in their speeches raised objection on the move and demanded for change of decision.

When some members were about to become unruly and started hue and cry the convener called for voting on the issue.

The women members got support of 21 members while the opposing councillors bagged 22 votes. On this, the women councillors staged protest against the attitude of their colleagues and termed it unbecoming.

“Its totally against the very spirit of Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and uncalled for decision,” said Gul Ambreen who led the walkout adding that last time they were given more funds.

About the two per cent allocation of the budget for women development project, Gul Ambreen said this amount would only meet the establishment charges of skill development centres or sewing centres already operating in the city for a decade but not for the new schemes. She said the women councillors must be provided with the funds equal to their male counterparts under the law.

She also criticized the language used by some colleagues against them and said that when they were in need of the support of the women councillors they were sided with by them, but now they were behaving totally against them. The disgruntled women councillors announced that they would not endorse distribution of development funds either.

Later, on the request of convener the agitating members returned on the promise that their demand would be considered. The convener also constituted a five-member committee for looking into the matter.

The members agreed on disbursement of the development budget by giving Rs 300,000 to each Naib Nazim, Rs 200,000 to labour-kisan councillor while nothing was allocated for women councillors. The house also expressed its consent for giving Rs 700,000 and Rs 500,000 for the Tehsil Nazim and his deputy respectively.