December 31, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 26, 1423

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RAWALPINDI, Dec 30: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has rejected the request of the RCB’s suspended members regarding the convening of a full-board meeting, official sources told Dawn.

In a letter to the suspended vice-president of the board, Chaudhry Tanvir Ahmad Khan, and other members, the RCB has contended that the four-year term of office of the former had ended on July 25, 2002.

“Section 14(5) of the Cantonment Act on the basis of which you have desired for holding a special meeting of the board being members of the former board has been misinterpreted as you are no more members. Furthermore, the board has been varied during the pendency of your term in office which is likely to continue till the successor board is elected under the Cantonment Ordinance 2002,” the letter stated.

“Your request for convening of special meeting of the Cantonment Board merits no consideration,” it added.

On the other hand, the members have strongly reacted against the RCB’s move and termed it a ‘gross violation of the cantonment rules’. They are planning to move the courts.

“Our term has not ended. The cantonment officials are telling lies because the board has not been varied. We are, therefore, going to sue the cantonment officials in the courts,” a suspended member, Haji Ijaz, said.

He admitted that their four-year term had ended, but said section 15 (E) of the Cantonment Act, 1924, clearly stated that the former members would remain in office till new ones were elected to the board.

Haji Ijaz said there were precedents in the RCB’s history when the board, which had been illegally suspended, was restored by the superior court.