April 11, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1427

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FAISALABAD, April 10: A group of shopkeepers and vendors roughed up members of an anti-encroachment team of the Lyallpur Town, partially burnt its vehicle and damaged wind screen of the other here on Monday.

Reports said the anti-encroachment team, headed by land officer Nusrat Iqbal, took encroached articles into custody on the Regal Road. Falling into a rage, some shopkeepers and vendors started pelting stones on town employees, forcing them to run away from the scene. Angry shopkeepers later burnt an official vehicle and damaged wind screen of the other. They also retrieved their articles from the official vehicle.

The town administration claimed that shopkeepers had snatched valuables from employees, thrashed them severely and also burnt an official vehicle.

It said that criminal cases would be got registered against shopkeepers and vendors.

FINANCIAL CRISIS: The City District Government has been facing serious financial crisis and miserably failed to present the budget despite take over by elected nazim.

Sources close to the district nazim and his financial managers revealed here on Monday that the government was facing over Rs850 million deficit. It has no way but to wait for a huge grant from the president or the chief minister to run its daily affairs.

The deficit had become a headache for the nazim and his team and they were planning to take some cosmetic measures for the preparation of budget and its approval. But fact remains if some amount was not provided by the federal or provincial government as a special case, the City District Government would collapse.

Almost all the district councils and town administrations in the province have approved their budgets. Similarly, eight towns of the city district also approved their budgets but the district council itself failed to do so.

Majority of the 413-member house belongs to opposition backed parties which could be judged from the fact that city district nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef was a former PML-N MNA and elected as opposition nominee but later joined the ruling party. Likewise, naib nazim Mian Amjad Yaseen, a former MNA, had also changed his loyalties.

Meanwhile, Rana Zahid said the budget document had been prepared and it would be presented before the house soon. He admitted that the council had been facing financial problems due to a variety of reasons but hoped that the situation would be ‘tackled’ with the assistance of president of Pakistan.