RAWALPINDI, July 22: City district Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas on Tuesday challenged the blocking of development funds by the Punjab government in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench.

Admitting the petition Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah of the LHC directed assistant advocate general to take directions from Punjab government and convey to the court on Wednesday.

Making Punjab Government through secretary local governments and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi as respondents, the petitioners stated that the provincial government had been making unwarranted interferences in the smooth functioning of local governments since the administration changed in Lahore.

The petitioners said that the local governments had been directed not to start new development schemes for the next fiscal year in its directives on June 23 and earlier froze the development funds of the local bodies.

They further said that the local government representatives were being harassed through registration of politically motivated criminal cases. The petitioners prayed to the court that the Punjab government should be directed to allow the local governments to plan and execute the development schemes and let these institutes work in accordance with Local Government Ordinance 2000 for the benefit of the people.

They also prayed to the court that the administration should be directed not to harass the elected representatives of the people through registration of cases against them. The petition was filed by District Nazim Raja Javaid Ikhlas, Naib Nazim Afzal Khokhar Town Nazim (TN) Murree Sardar Muhammad Saleem, TN Taxila Muhammad Siddique, TN Kallar Syedan Sohail Ashraf, TN Potohar Hamid Nawaz Raja, TN Kotli Sattian Raja Shehzad Nemat Satti and TN Kahuta Tariq Mehmood Murtza.