September 11, 2006	Monday	Sha'aban 17, 1427

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TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 10: It took no less than the country’s prime minister’s intervention to pamper the ego of Toba tehsil nazim in a petty dispute between him and his district counterpart over the construction of a half-kilometer road portion in the town.

Reports said the dispute arose between District Nazim Chaudhry Abdul Sattar and Tehsil Nazim Mian Javed Iqbal, when the former approved the construction and repair of various roads in the town at an estimated cost of Rs3.5 million from the district council funds.

However, the tehsil nazim was not bothered about the uplift work in the town at the expense of the district head, till the construction activity reached a point where a half-kilometer portion of a road was to be constructed to link Awami Basti and Rehman Pura (Gaushala), two localities mostly inhabited by low-paid workers.

But, the insiders say that the actual purpose of the road was to provide an access to the Sultan Foundation School, a trust being headed by the district nazim.

Though the work was initiated after all the formalities for the construction were fulfilled—as the road was proposed by the nazim and naib-nazim of the union council concerned and the NOC duly issued by the TMO, the tehsil municipal administration suddenly started creating hurdles in the uplift activity. Construction of another parallel road was started, and the NOC for the link-road was cancelled on this pretext.

Then a stay order was also obtained from a local court on behalf of some area people against the construction of the district council’s road, while some TMA staffers even attempted to remove the construction material from the site. Despite all such hurdles, the district nazim remained committed to build the road and the work continued.

Meanwhile, according to sources privy to the district nazim, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held a meeting with MNAs from the area, in connection with the no-trust move, which included Mian Farhan Latif (a son-in-law of tehsil nazim), who complained to Mr Aziz that the district nazim was misusing district funds. The prime minister ordered the district administration to halt the work on the road.

The final nail in the coffin was fixed by DCO Nawazish Ali, who reportedly stopped the contractor from further construction.