December 25, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 20, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

RAWALPINDI, Dec 24: Accusations against Nazim and municipal officer marred the Tehsil council session here on Tuesday.

The member from Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, Shabir Jani, while speaking on a point of order, criticized the sanctioning of funds for the establishment of a women college in Jhanda Chichi as part of the electioneering campaign of the nephew of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the minister for information and media development.

This enraged the supporters of Sheikh Rashid and they snatched mike from the opposition member and threatened that no such criticism should be raised in future. Later, the members started chanting slogans against each other.

The speaker, Sajjad Khan, however, controlled the unruly situation and asked the charged members to calm down. He said the development works in the Tehsil should be hailed and should not be made target.

He thanked Sheikh Rashid for approving a hospital near Committee Chowk.

Earlier, the women councillors also accused the Tehsil Nazim, Raja Hamid Nawaz, of discrimination. Yasmin Tahir, Tahira Shaukat and Sajjida Abbasi complained that the sewing-machines purchased for the women councillors had not been given to those members, who had opposed the Nazim in the general elections.

The members from the rural areas, including Ch Ijaz Anwar, Sajjid Saghiri and Raja Hafeez, complained that no development work had so far been initiated in their union councils.

Some of the members accused the TMA officials of bypassing them while launching uplift works in their localities. They demanded that they should be taken into confidence about the tehsil affairs and all welfare projects should be at the discretion of the members.

The Tehsil members, Raja Hafeez and Anjum Qureshi, complained against the water shortage at Dhoke Hassu, Dhoke Mangtal, Pirwadhai and Bangash colony. They criticized the Water and sanitation agency (Wasa) for its failure to ensure water supply in all the localities.

They said the Khanpur Dam Project had been completed but water shortage was still continuing.

Other issues which were discussed in the House included installation of street-lights in all the union councils. They passed a resolution that lamps should be divided in all the union councils on equal basis.