DERA GHAZI KHAN, July 4: The women councillors of the Dera Tehsil Council have put the tehsil Nazim and his team in a predicament by rejecting the budget for fiscal year 2004-05.

They alleged that women councillors were ignored in the budget allocations while tehsil administration was engaged in pressurizing the rebel women members to surrender. Led by Mrs Tayyaba Aziz (convener education committee), women councillors Bibi Shehnaz Iqbal, Begum Zareena Rao Ijaz (convener welfare committee), Begum Naseem Akhtar and Rahat Jabeen while talking to newsmen here on Sunday rejected the tehsil budget of Rs220 million.

Mrs Aziz demanded the re-session of the budget, saying that budget copies were not provided to the members. Women members had not attended the budget session which was held on June 30 at Fort Munro in protest against the alleged corruption of tehsil Nazim Aasim Zubair Khosa and Naib Nazim Khalid Rauf.

Mrs Aziz blamed that all tehsil contracts and auctions should be cancelled because these were awarded to cronies in violation of rules and regulations. She said that only Rs400,000 had been allocated for women councillors in the budget.

The tehsil administration, she alleged, was threatening her and other women councillors to withdraw the decision. It had procured substandard sewing machines for the needy women just to earn handsome commission.

She called upon president Pervez Musharraf to take notice of the overt discrimination against the women councillors. In the next general elections, she would follow the decision of the group of MNA Meena Ehsan Jaafar Leghari. When contacted, the tehsil Nazim and Naib Nazim were not available for comments.