25 February 2004	Wednesday	04 Muharram 1425

HARIPUR, Feb 24: Haripur District Nazim Dr Raja Amer Zaman said on Tuesday that the local government system was being destabilized by depriving the districts of funds under certain provisions of the provincial finance commission (PFC) award.

"The complicated award is a conspiracy against the local government system, on the basis of which the remote areas are being deprived of resources," he said speaking on a point of order during the district council's session.

He criticized some provisions of the award and said a union council with a budget of Rs1 million could not fulfil the criterion set under it for allocation of funds.

He said Rs250,000 of the UCs' budget were set aside for the citizens' community boards and the remaining Rs750,000 could not cater to the requirements of the people under the prescribed allocation formula of 40 per cent for education, 35 per cent for health and 25 per cent for other schemes.

He said the people were pressuring their nazims for getting their problems resolved but they were feeling helpless. He opposed the disbursement of funds to the provincial assembly members under the drought relief programme and said: "Schemes are proposed and approved by the district governments but the provincial government gives funds to the MPAs."

He said funds meant for development of deprived areas were being spent in big cities. He said funds should be distributed on the basis of need rather than population. He demanded a uniform system for allocation of funds.

He asked the union councils' nazims to propose new schemes as the fiscal year would end in a few months. He stressed the need for a pre-audit system at the union council level so that transparency could be ensured.

Kholian UC Nazim Salim Khan and Bagra UC Nazim Aslam Khan Bagra asked Convener Riaz Khan Jadoon to seek guidance from the authorities about the powers of union councils' nazims.

Mumtaz Begum, through a resolution, demanded withdrawal of cases against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. She criticized thedistrict government for not allocating funds for her union council.