March 16, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

LAHORE, March 15: Amid dissenting voices, some 130 or so treasury members of the district council of Lahore reposed confidence in the leadership of their nazim, Mian Amer Mahmood, and naib nazim Idrees Haneef at a meeting of the local body at Jinnah Hall on Saturday.

Soon after recitation from the Holy Quran, the proceedings of Sept 26 and Feb 1 meetings of the local body were being presented before the meeting when an opposition member pointed out a lack of quorum. The counting was under way when a treasury member alleged that some opposition councillors had taken away attendance register from the CDGL officials sitting outside the hall.

The opposition members started chanting slogans against Mian Amer and in favour of Mian Nawaz Sharif when convener Idrees Haneef adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes. Following the announcement, the opposition members started gathering around the stage where Mr Haneef was sitting. Treasury member Shabnam Shehzadi Butt, minority councillor Tariq Gill and Dr Shamshad attempted to pacify the unruly opposition members who, however, thrashed Gill and Dr Shamshad, pushed away Ms Butt and hurled abuses at them.

The rumpus continued for half-an-hour or so after which the opposition walked out of the meeting. Mr Gill and Dr Shamshad were taken to Mayo Hospital and the treasury resumed taking up items on the agenda in the absence of opposition.

Union Council No 6 Nazim Iftikhar Yousaf tabled a resolution, commending the efforts of the district nazim towards the development of the Punjab capital. Over 130 treasury councillors, present at the meeting, resolved by a show of hands to stand by Mian Amer and his deputy through thick and thin and to foil the conspiracies of the opposition members.

No opposition councillor was present when the meeting expressed grief and sorrow over the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and offered fateha.Union Council 53 Nazim Tahir Majeed Mayo moved a resolution, condemning the re-publication of blasphemous caricatures. “Such acts are against all norms and aimed at hurting the sentiments of the Muslims. We condemn it in the strongest possible words,” he said, and demanded that the resolution be handed over to the honorary consular of Denmark in Lahore and the Danish Ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad. The resolution was unanimously adopted.

District Council member Junaid Butt’s resolution expressed sympathies with the victims of FIA building and Model Town blasts. He requested all political forces to join hands so that a comprehensive strategy could be devised to thwart the designs of unscrupulous elements carrying out such barbaric acts against humanity.

The meeting offered fateha also for the people who lost their lives in the blasts and prayed for the early recovery of the injured.

The officials named the thoroughfare from The Mall underpass to Dharampura’s as Isfahan Avenue.