RAWALPINDI: A year after the cantonment board elections, elected members of the PML-N have exhausted all means to resolve problems faced by residents in their respective wards.

With no voice in the provincial party chapter – led by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif – all 19 members of the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards contacted Senator Chaudhry Tanveer, who is said to have close ties with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz.

Mr Tanveer, in response, invited all the members to dinner at a hotel on Saturday night to hear their complaints.

A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that as a seasoned politician from the cantonment areas Mr Tanveer has links to retired and serving military officials, so the party’s elected members contacted him to resolve the issues between them and the bureaucracy.

All 19 PML-N members claim bureaucracy was not sorting out residents’ problems

He said that elected members from the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) alleged that the bureaucracy did not listen to the problems of residents who came to the members, and the elected members were in turn embarrassed by residents of their ward.

He said the elected members also wanted funds from the federal government to launch development schemes in their respective areas, since the government has promised them funds but has not released themreleased nothing.

“MNA Malik Abrar was asked to help the RCB’s elected members to resolve problems facing their voters and act as a middleman between the members and the bureaucracy, in order to avoid any further tussles between them,” he said.

He said the tussle between elected members at the Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) and the CCB administration was also discussed, and Mr Tanveer assured them that the issues would be taken up at a higher level.

RCB Vice President Raja Jehandad Khan told Dawn that the meeting between the elected members and Mr Tanveer was a routine matter, since he looked after the party workers’ and members’ issues.

He added that some of the problems facing members of both cantonment boards were discussed, and Mr Tanveer suggested solutions to them, which is not unusual.

CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz told Dawn that the elected board members had asked Mr Tanveer to hear the problems facing them in an official capacity, and while finding solutions for voters in their wards.

When contacted, Mr Abrar also said the meeting was held to discuss issues facing the elected members, and he had been asked to help the members as most of them were elected to the boards for the first time.

He said as an MNA it was not his duty to be involved in the civic body’s issues, but being a senior leader in the cantonment he was assigned to resolve issues between elected members and the local administration.

He said he was helping the elected members raise their voice before the party leadership. He said he brought Rs100 million from the federal government to the elected members so they would begin development work in their respective areas.

He added that he also managed to bring in Rs80 million for road projects, and the federal government would release these funds on May 26.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2016