SIALKOT, May 4: Uproar marred the district council proceedings when the ruling party allowed a UC nazim to preside over the session despite presence of convener in the house. The incident reflected emerging differences within the PML in district. Reports said the convener and district Naib Nazim Arsal Waqar Ghuman was in his retiring room when the PML allowed Syed Maroof Shah Gilani, UC Kopra nazim, to preside over the session, ignoring the convener. However, later, when Mr Ghumman was allowed to preside for a short while, he termed the proceedings illegal, saying the session was summoned without his consent and prior permission.

He said the session was illegally summoned by the district government by printing his fake signature on the agenda. The convener adjourned the session for 14 days and went out of the house along with opposition leader Qamar Abbas Chand, which sparked mud-slinging from both sides.

Mr Chand snatched the attendance and proceedings register from district government officials and escaped.

The house unanimously passed a resolution against the convener, banning his entry in the session. The resolution alleged that the convener had no experience to run the council and he was unaware of the relevant rules.

The house was of the view that leaving the session by convener was unconstitutional and it was authorized to punish Mr Ghumman. The house allowed Maroof Shah to preside over the session, who did so for 30 minutes.

District Nazim Mian Naeem presented a surplus budget of Rs310 million before the house which was unanimously passed.

The nazim also termed the convener’s act as illegal and unconstitutional while Mr Ghumman also declared the proceedings illegal.

Meanwhile, the convener Qamar Abbas Chand said at a press conference the district nazim tried to bypass them while preparing the agenda of the session, which they said carried fake signatures of the convener. They alleged that the district nazim got approved the surplus budget from the house to conceal his corruption, as there was no justification for the budget ahead of dissolution of the district governments owing to local government polls.

They said that a corruption case against the nazim would be sent to the NAB very soon. They also urged President Gen Pervez Musharraf and CM Pervaiz Elahi to take notice of the nazim’s alleged corruption and order an inquiry and special audit of the district government accounts.