PESHAWAR, April 3: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and district governments are heading for a deadlock as 16 district Nazims have demanded of President Gen Pervez Musharraf to stop unlawful interference of the provincial government.

Nowshera District Nazim Pervez Khattak told Dawn here on Thursday that a meeting was held at his residence in Peshawar on Wednesday to deliberate on the current standoff between the NWFP government and the district governments. He said that 16 district Nazims attended the meeting and agreed to take a realistic stand on the issue.

The MMA government and the district Nazims are at odds over power sharing as the latter accused the former of attempting to curtailing the powers of the local governments by empowering the district coordination officers (DCOs).

The NWFP minister for local government said that the provincial government was seeking to propose certain amendments to the local bodies law.

The district nazims have been irked by this week’s massive transfers and postings in the education and health departments which, they maintain, could not be done without obtaining No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from them.

The provincial government on the other hand believes that it is its prerogative to transfer and post employees wherever it deems fit.

In a related development, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani who is visiting Kohat on Friday has chosen to ignore the District Nazim of Kohat, Malik Muhammad Asad, to the inaugural ceremony of Auxillary Kadar Dam, a project undertaken and executed by the district council. “The district nazim was told that while the DCO has been invited, he was not amongst the list of invitees,” an official said.

The provincial assembly had already adopted a resolution, demanding “streamlining” of the local bodies institutions during its third session. The matter was referred to the House Committee to discuss and submit a report on it.

“We are pondering upon to take up the issue with the superior courts if the President does not restore their administrative and financial powers,” Mr Khattak said, who has been nominated as convener of the five-member organising committee of district Nazims.

The five-member organising committee comprises district Nazims of Nowshera, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Upper Dir and Kohat.

He said that the provincial government, through a notification, transferred all powers, executed by the district Nazims to District Coordination Officers (DCOs) and District Education Officers.

Under the notification, he said, DCOs would preside over the meetings of District Development Committees (DDCs) while Nazims had been debarred from the committees, which was in total violation of the Local Government Ordinance 2001.