10 October 2004	Sunday	24 Shaban 1425

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KARACHI, Oct 9: The visiting NWFP Minister for Local Government Sardar Mohammad Idrees has said that the local government system would gain stability and become more transparent after some amendments already proposed by provincial governments.

The minister was speaking at a press conference here on Saturday. JUI-F leaders Qari Muhammad Usman, Qari Sher Afzal, MMA parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Maulana Umar Sadiq and Maulana Azizur Rehman were among those present on the occasion.

Sardar Idrees said: "The four major sections proposed to be amended pertain to simplifying the accountability process; making the procedure of election and removal of a nazim identical; reduction of UC members' strength from 21 to 11; and transferring the writing the ACR of a DCO from a nazim to secretary/chief secretary/chief executive."

In reply to a question, he made mention of some ambiguity and confusion in certain sections of the ordinance which, he said, needed to be clarified. There should be an amendment providing for an opportunity to a nazim to defend himself before the concerned provincial assembly if an action was going to be taken against him, he added.

The minister pointed out that for all practical purposes, a nazim was regarded by an assembly as 'outsider' and, as such, he was unable to present his case before it. Likewise, he said, it was not still clear that with whom the authority to impose Section-144 in a city was vested.

A meeting of the concerned provincial ministers is being summoned sometime in the next week to formulate a joint strategy for carrying out the amendments.

In reply to another question, the minister said the government was yet to decide whether the upcoming LG polls would be held on the party basis or otherwise.

Regarding the NWFP government, he claimed that it was functioning well in spite of all hurdles and conspiracies.

From the very beginning, he pointed out, the NWFP coalition had adopted the strategy that the MMA-led government should refrain from any move that could earn it a bad name and provide an excuse to relevant authorities for an action.

Sardar Idrees told newsmen that the NWFP government generated a total revenue of about Rs3.5 billion and had to pay a subsidy of Rs3 billion. Therefore, It had to rely on the NFC share and the income through the hydal power generation to meet its expenditure.

He said that former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had announced allocation of an additional Rs2 billion out of the the hydal power revenues that had raised the amount from Rs6 billion to Rs8 billion. However, his commitment was never honoured, he added.

"Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, in his recent visit to the NWFP, promised to settle the matter within a month through arbitration," he said, adding that he had also pledged convening of a meeting on NFC award.

In the absence of a water storage facility, the Punjab has been using the NWFP's share of 0.2 million cusecs without paying any compensation that comes to Rs3 billion per annum, according to the minister.

Besides, he added, the Punjab was not accepting the NWFP's request for the procurement of the former's wheat. Instead, the Punjab was insisting on selling wheat flour which, he said, was not fair as the NWFP needed wheat also to keep its flour mills running.

Sardar Idress also spoke of the NWFP government's education and health policy, saying that despite financial constraints, it was paying due attention to the education and health facilities. In this regard, he referred to the opening of medical colleges for girls as well as a women university. Such measures, he observed, would help convince parents to send their daughters to an institution providing co-education for higher studies.

The minister described the NWFP government's policy of imposing a ban on new cars, foreign visits and functions in five-star hotels as 'contingency', saying that the money thus saved was being utilized in welfare projects aimed at providing better civic amenities to people.

Earlier, addressing a meeting of the JUI leaders, the minister said that the MMA government had been striving hard to come up to the expectations of masses. Over the past two years, it had succeeded in enforcing Islamic system without violating the law of the land.