July 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 02, 1428

MUZAFFARGARH, July 17: District Nazim Qayyum Jatoi and ruling Pakistan Muslim League are poised to show their strength today (Wednesday) in the budget session of the district council.

District council convenor Jumshaid Dasti has called the session of the council.

Mr Jatoi will try to win the show by getting the budget passed in a house of 144 union council nazims while the PML has asked its nazims to stay away from the session.

Pakistan People’s Party-backed Mr Jatoi and the Punjab government have been at odds for the last three years. Mr Jatoi moved court two years ago, alleging the Punjab government did not release funds for the district because he had refused to join the PML.

Suspended naib nazim Syed Ali Raza Shamsi said that Mr Jatoi would fail to get a full quorum session as PML has a majority in the council.

Mr Jatoi told Dawn that the decision by the PML to stay away from the budget session was unfortunate because he had prepared the budget following the suggestions of PML nazims. He said he wanted a consensual budget for the district but the government wanted to derail the development process. He said according to the budget, all the UC nazims, both from the PPP and the PML, would get Rs2 million each for development schemes.

On Tuesday, members of the Provincial Assembly Jawad Kamran, Amjad Hameed Dasti, Imtiaz Aleem Qureshi, Qaswar Langrial and Syed Qaim Ali Shamsi and Dr Tanveer Qureshi (brother of arrested member of the National Assembly Jamil Qureshi) and Nawab Israr Khan met with District Coordination Officer Akhtar Nazir Warraich to device a strategy to fail the budget session.

The Jatoi camp gave impression that the budget would be as per the wishes of the government and in this regard Mr Jatoi sent his two representatives to see the DCO for preparing budget. The DCO also fully cooperated, unlike his predecessor Tariq Najmi, with the nazim to prepare the budget. Now, the PML has decided to boycott the session thus creating an embarrassing situation for the DCO.

A PML nazim said that they would boycott the session because it was called by Mr Dasti who was not the convenor of the council. He said Ahad Sinawan was the senior convenor of the assembly and only he could call the session.