26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

PESHAWAR, Feb 25: Nazims staged a walk-out from the district council session here on Wednesday following a media report that the Frontier Highway Authority (FHA) shifted Rs20 million from district Peshawar to Bannu on the chief minister's directives.

When the proceedings started, with convener Iqbal Khalil in the chair, Nazim Israrullah Advocate on a point of order said that the FHA had transferred funds allocated for the rehabilitation of Peshawar-Naguman Road to Bannu, the chief minister's home constituency.

He said that work on the road which was in a very bad shape had been suspended apparently due to non-availability of funds. Quoting a news report, he said, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had directed the FHA officials to divert funds from Peshawar to his home constituency to construct four bridges on a link road between Bannu township and the Indus Highway.

The members strongly reacted to the report and staged the walk-out to lodge their protest. Later, they ended their boycott. Convener Dr Iqbal Khalil asked the members not to blindly follow the newspaper reports. He said that the provincial government should issue clarification to explain the factual position.

Earlier, the district council through a unanimous resolution asked the city district government to ban the installation of marble factories on the Warsak Road. Member Hafizullah who moved the resolution pointed out that the unchecked installation of marble factories were polluting farm land in the area.