February 26, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 24, 1423

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CHARSADDA, Feb 25: The Charsadda Councillors Ittehad has criticised the federal government for its failure in transferring power to the grassroots level, as pledged in the Devolution Plan, and decided to challenge the local government system in the Peshawar High Court.

This was decided in a meeting held at the residence of Haji Sadiqullah, a councilor from Union Council, MC-4, here on Monday.

The meeting regretted that the councilors had no say in the affairs of government, because power had not been transferred to the grassroots level in true sense, instead corruption had increased in the government departments, it claimed.

The meeting vowed to continue struggle for the rights of the councillors and threatened to stage a long march and a sit-in, in front of the Governor House, if the anomalies in the local government system were not removed.

They also warned that if the government’s attitude towards councillors did not change, they would tender collective resignations.

The meeting also decided to convene a councillors’ convention to chalk out a joint strategy for the solution of their problems.  Through adopting a unanimous resolution, they hailed the suggestion of renaming NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa.