RAWALPINDI: The city district government Rawalpindi (CDGR) has requested the Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) to waive the Rs60 million loan it had taken from the latter to pay pension to the retired employees in 2011.

The city government has also contacted the Punjab government to convince the RTMA to waive the loan.

A senior official of the city government told Dawn that they had requested the RTMA to waive the loan as it was facing problems to maintain the pension accounts. He said the CDGR had to pay pension to over 1,700 former employees.

He said the prevailing security situation had also put financial burden on the city government. It has already spent Rs10 million on the preparation of the local government elections.

The official said the Punjab government had failed to return Rs50 million which the CDGR had spent on its instructions on placing cement blocks at Benazir Bhutto airport in October last year.

“For the security arrangements on Ashura and after the sectarian violence in the city, the CDGR spent Rs35 million and the home department is yet to clear these dues,” he said.

On the other hand, an RTMA official said their development projects would suffer if the funds were not returned by the CDGR. “The loan was given to the CDGR on the directives of the Punjab government and the CDGR would have returned it last year,” he said.

When contacted, RTMA Municipal Officer (Finance) Raja Iftikhar said the Punjab government had asked the RTMA to waive the loan if it was possible. He said there was no clear-cut directive from the government in this regard.

Mr Iftikhar said the loan had been provided to the CDGR as a goodwill gesture and it should be returned. — A Reporter