02 January 2005	Sunday	20 Ziqa'ad 1425

KARACHI, Jan 1: The City Council on Saturday bitterly criticized bureaucracy for creating hurdles in the disbursement of arrears of its member's honorarium, and staged a walkout against the attitude of the concerned officials who, they said , were not cooperating in settling the issue.

The council session, with Presiding Officer Ghulam Abbas Baloch in the chair, lashed out at the EDO (Finance) for not turning up at the session despite being repeated asked by its members.

The members questioned withholding of payments of the arrears in spite of the funds having been set aside in the city government's budget.

The EDO (Law) Manzoor Ahmed, who was invited to the session, informed the house that there was not legal impediment in the disbursement. "We have already given our opinion that the payment of arrears is permissible as per the prescribed rules and regulations.''

After a detail debate on the issue, the presiding officer formed a committee and authorized it to hold a meeting with the DCO to settle the issue. The meeting would be held on Monday January 03.

Siddique Rathor, head of the Al-Khadim Group, remarked that non-payment of arrears was beyond comprehension when the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman Danial Aziz had favoured payment of honorarium even to UC councillors.

Some council members took strong exception to the issuance of a letter that accused one of their colleagues, Sharif Awan, of land-grabbing. Through the letter, the city nazim has asked the DIG (Operation) to deal with 'iron hands' with the accused.

Mr Awan maintained that no government land had been encroached upon by him, and told the house that the piece of land in question had been used to construct a road. He also criticized the city nazim for recommending action without seeking any explanation from him.

Najmi Alam drew attention of the council to a notice issued by the Provincial Local Government Commission (PLGC) accusing him of interfering in the official duties of the KBCA when its team arrived in a Clifton locality a day before Eidul Fitr.

Rejecting the charge, the member clarified that he had only asked the KBCA team to put off their action till some other day after the Eid.-PPI