LAHORE, Sept 23: The Lahore District Council on Thursday validated overcharging by parking stand contractors by approving 66 to 100 per cent increase in parking charges and adopted a resolution supporting the wearing of uniform by President Musharraf.

District Nazim Mian Amer also attended the council meeting held at the Jinnah Hall with Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir in the chair to ensure adoption of the resolution.

The enhancement in parking charges for cars and motorcycles from Rs3 and Rs5 to Rs5 and Rs10, respectively, was approved by the council on the ground that people were already paying higher charges on account of overcharging by the contractors.

District Nazim Mian Amer had already approved the proposal, and the approval of the district council was necessary for a gazette notification in this regard by the local government department.

The proposal for increase in parking charges had been proposed by District Officer (public facilities) Dr Tufail Siddiqi, responsible for checking overcharging at parking lots. He sought approval of the council for increasing the charges on the ground that no objection had been received against the proposal in response to advertisements.

The resolution supporting the wearing of uniform by President Musharraf was not on the council agenda, and it was moved by Hamid Husain Khan when the house was about to adjourn. It was adopted by a majority vote without any discussion. Navid Sadiq and five others opposed the adoption of the resolution.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, opposition leader Navid Sadiq and councillors Waheed Alam, Shahid Aslam, Malik Ilyas, Moeen Arif, Bashir Butt, Shahid Latif Qureshi and Laeeq Butt said adoption of the resolution was ridiculous because continuation of wearing of uniform by the president depended on extension in his service which was to be decided by the GHQ and not the District Council.

They said it gave an impression that the army had no substitute for Gen Musharraf. "What will happen to the country after the general will be no more in the world?" they asked the supporters of the resolution declaring Musharraf indispensable.

Earlier, the house rejected a privilege motion by Anarkali Union Council Nazim Waheed Alam against the nomination of one of his councillors as Union Council coordinator by District Nazim Mian Amer.

He said the coordinator had opened a parallel union council office in a filth depot and started posing as the UC Nazim. Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir put the motion to vote after observing that the complaint did not tantamount to breach of privilege.

The council proceedings were disrupted for some time when Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Nazim Tariq Sana Bajwa entered the hall leading a group of supporters raising slogans in favour of District Nazim Mian Amer.

Mr Bajwa, who was Nazim's coordinator for Data Ganj Bakhsh Town before his election as Town Nazim last week, walked straight to the dais and touched the knees of the district Nazim as a mark of respect.

The District Council was also briefed on the proposed Integrated Master Plan for Lahore, and councillors were asked to submit their proposals for amendments to it before the next session.

The council was informed that the Lahore district population was expected to grow to 13 million while the metropolitan area population was expected to increase to 14.1 million by 2021 and double in the next 20 years.