September 09, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Sept 8: City Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas on Monday accused the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif of ignoring the court decisions. The court had ordered return of powers to elected representatives and noninterference in the affairs of local bodies.

Talking to Dawn he said that a handful of politicians in the new Punjab government were dictating the terms in provincial affairs.

“Only three or four ruling political figures have virtually besieged the whole administration in Punjab. They have grabbed powers from elected representatives and made bureaucracy their servant,” City Nazim Rawalpindi Raja Javed Ikhlas said.

“The PML-N is a champion of an independent judiciary but not abiding by its decision. This party is not sincere with judiciary except for befooling the people by launching a populist movement,” he added.

Mr Ikhlas who is also active member of PML-Q—rival political party of PML-N—regretted that the Punjab government had frozen development fund of elected representatives in a bid to stop the PML-Q nazims from undertaking uplift projects and thus discredit them eventually.

“In case the uplift fund is not released to local bodies in the next four to five months, the civic infrastructure of the district would collapse. The rulers are least concerned about badly needed maintenance of the city,” the city nazim said.

Replying to a question, Mr Ikhlas said that the top PML-N leadership was politically immature as, unlike the PPP, it had failed to take all stakeholders on board. He said that the PML-N would not deliver unless it did not abandon the politics of agitation and rivalry.

The city nazim regretted that the shelving of Leh Expressway Project by the provincial government would harm no politician but the general public at large as the project was conceived for the convenience of people.

He regretted that he was not asked about any issue in the city saying that he wanted to give relief to people in the month of Ramazan but he was ignored in all meetings.