RAWALPINDI: Despite the passage of 17 days after the cantonment board elections, the elected members have not been called to take oath.

In the past, the oath-taking meeting used to be held a week after the cantonment elections but this time the schedule for the oath taking as well as the selection of two reserved seat members and the vice-presidents has not been issued.

The ruling PML-N managed to win 19 of the 20 seats of the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment board seats. However, the two served seats of labour and minorities and the vice-presidents would be indirectly elected after the members take oath.

When contacted, RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan told Dawn that earlier the cantonment board president and the station commander issued a notification in this regard but this time the election commission would issue the schedule for the oath taking of the members and indirect filling of the labour and minority seats.

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A senior leader of PML-N told Dawn that the ruling party won two-third majority in Rawalpindi and Chaklala but not in other cantonments of the country. So the PML-N wants more time to settle issues regarding the selection of the vice-presidents.

He said it was a blessing for the ruling party that no other party won the elections at least in Rawalpindi and Chaklala otherwise the opposition would have raised an objection about the delay in the first meeting of the board.

“The ruling party is still in confusion to make its ‘loyal’ and ‘obedient’ men as the vice-presidents of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonments. The party is currently divided in two groups and one of them - Chaudhry Tanveer Khan group - is patronising most of the members in both the cantonments,” he said.

RCB member-elect Raja Jehandad Khan added that the schedule for the oath taking and the election of the vice-presidents would be issued within a few days.

He said the PML-N would nominate the vice-presidents soon after the issuance of the schedule. He said the party leadership would decide who would lead the members in the cantonment boards.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a former vice-president of the RCB, who has also been elected to the cantonment board, said the delay in the issuance of the schedule created problems for the people who wanted to get their problems resolved through their representatives.

“The cantonment board staff behaved badly with the civilian residents who visit the offices for getting death certificates or any other documents,” he said.

A senior official of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) said due to the delay in the oath taking, many important decisions were pending.

“The annual budget making process has not been started yet. After the members take oath, the board will finalise the development works, taxation and other issues in consultation with the public representatives,” he said.

However, RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan said the cantonment board had already sent a request to the elected members to make a priority list for development works in their respective wards for the next fiscal year, so that after the elected board starts functioning, the budget would be present before the members for approval.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2015

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