January 19, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 15, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Jan 18: The Peshawar city district government and Peshawar’s town-1 administration have apparently locked horns over the question of transferring financial resources from the former to the latter, according to official sources.

Assets and liabilities of the now defunct metropolitan and municipal corporations, district councils, municipal and town committees and union councils were required to be succeeded by the new local government entities which came into being on Aug 14, 2001.

In accordance with the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, assets and liabilities were required to be succeeded:

(a) city district government in the case of metropolitan corporation or municipal corporation, as the case may be;

(b) district government in the case of district council;

(c) tehsil municipal administration in the case of municipal corporations, municipal committees and town committees in the tehsil, as the case may be; and

(d) union administration in the case of union councils.

“Whereas the liabilities of the now defunct Municipal Corporation Peshawar have been transferred to the newly established entity, town-1 of the Peshawar city district, our major sources of income are not being delegated to us in an apparent violation of section 180 of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001,” said Haroon Bilour, Nazim, town-1 of the Peshawar district government.

According to him, town-1 is being made to pay the amount the defunct MCP owed to Wapda. On the other hand, he said, the district government had kept silence over the question of transferring town-1’s major sources of income, including property rent and the income from bus terminals, etc.

In accordance with the ordinance, said Mr Bilour, the tehsil municipal administration’s funds should be transferred to it and failure to do so on the part of the district government would be an apparent violation of the ordinance.

The town-1 administration, said the official sources, had also taken up the matter with the previous civil government in the province.

Mr Bilour claimed that the town-1 could earn Rs140 million annually if the Peshawar district government transferred the income heads of property rent and bus terminals.

“We have also taken up this issue at a recent meeting with the provincial minister for local government and rural development, Sardar Idrees, and he has held out the assurance that the issue will be resolved in line with the local government ordinance,” said Mr Bilour.