GUJRAT, Aug 9: The district nazim, tehsil Nazim and market committee chairman of Mandi Bahauddin and 34 nazims of different union councils on Saturday tendered their resignations to Gen Pervez Musharraf against the “excesses of police and undemocratic tactics of the provincial government.”

The DN and others, who belong to the PPP, assembled outside the DCO office in Mandi along with a large number of their supporters and chanted slogans against provincial government and police.

Speaking at a press conference, District Nazim Muhammad Nazar Gondal said that the provincial government and the bureaucracy were against the district government system introduced by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He said that police at the behest of the provincial government had baton charged him and other members of his party during the no-trust session against Malikwal tehsil Nazim Nadeem Afzal Chan in Malikwal two days ago.

The opposition (PML-Q) of Malikwal tehsil council had successfully tabled a no-confidence motion against Mr Chan who is son of former provincial minister Haji Afzal Chan of PPP and against tehsil naib nazim Tariq Mahmood.

Nazar Gondal alleged that the Chaudhrys of Gujrat had instructed the police to cane PPP participants of the Malikwal meeting. He claimed that his nephew Shafqat Mahmood and driver Nawaz had sustained critical injuries but neither doctors issued a medico-legal certificate nor police registered the case. Rather, he said, the Malikwal police registered a case against him and 75 PPP workers.

The Chaudhrys, according to him, believed in politics of victimization did not want to see any opposition in Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts. He further alleged that the district had become a police state as the provincial government had instructed the police not to entertain any politician of the PPP and PML-N.

He claimed that the Chaudhris were in a bid to merge Mandi Bahauddin in Gujrat district. “Former MNA Nawaz Bosal of PML-Q has given a written application to the chief minister with a request to eliminate the Mandi district and merge it into Gujrat.” Mandi, it may be added, has been a part of Gujrat till early 90s.

The DN said that tehsil Nazim Chaudhry Shahzad Anjum Pervez, chairman and vice-chairman of the market committee, Liaqat Ali Ranjha and Abdus Sattar, respectively, and 34 nazims of different union councils had also resigned.