FAISALABAD, Nov 26: Top provincial bureaucracy is discussing and trying to find out solutions to public grievances in Faisalabad division in ‘exhaustive’ meetings where not a single elected representative has been invited.

Elected representatives, particularly district, tehsil and town nazims, were conspicuous by their absence in series of marathon meetings and inspections being presided over by Chief Secretary Javed Mahmood during the last couple of days.

Senior bureaucrats are in Faisalabad on the instructions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to ascertain the problems of Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh districts.

Nearly two dozen administrative secretaries of provincial departments and the chief secretary, sans public representatives, are planning resolving the public problems.

Sources said the government did not invite the elected representatives from any district to have their input regarding problems the masses were facing.

Though the district coordination officers (DCOs) and local assemblies were already forwarding their respective areas’ problems to the provincial government, the chief secretary on Tuesday assigned one tehsil to two administrative secretaries to monitor development projects.

This will not only be wastage of time but also financial burden on the national exchequer, sources added.

Sources said the commissioner office contacted the Faisalabad district nazim just a day before the arrival of the chief secretary and informed him the purpose of top bureaucracy’s visit.

However, tehsil and town nazims were not consulted at any level, they added.

When top bureaucrats were trying to identify problems of this division, District Nazim Zahid Touseef flanked by industrialists, traders and public representatives was addressing a press conference at the same time on Tuesday.

Touseef informed reporters that several mega projects had come to a halt because of the indifference of the provincial government.

He said the government had stopped millions of rupees funds allocated for several projects, including of sewerage, water supply, construction of roads and construction of a university campus, stadium, cinema, expo centre and a children hospital.

Talking to Dawn, the nazim said that it was unfair that officials had not invited and consulted public representatives. He called this approach an insult of public mandate.

He said that despite the “tactics” used by the top officials, he sent the details of all approved, ongoing and delayed projects to the secretaries concerned, requesting them to pay immediate attention to their solution.

People from different segments of society have also criticised the method adopted by the top bureaucracy to resolve their problems.

Tahir Rashid, a union council nazim, said quest for power was the root cause of all evils and the top officials were exercising the same practice.

He said how officials could resolve the problems of masses when they did not even bother attending the district assembly sessions and meeting with public representatives.

If the top officials were here to address public problems, they should have meetings with public representatives, he added.