PESHAWAR, June 8: A rift has developed among the women district councillors over selection for the performance awards to be given to the women for their performance in different fields as part of the celebration of the Mader-i-Millat year.

Peshawar district council members Shazia Tehmas, Shamim Qaiser Khan and Shumaila Tabbasum, talking to Dawn, challenged each others claims to the awards.

Ms Tehmas alleged that the preparation of nominees’ list for the awards had been delayed for almost two months because some councillors opposed the inclusion a colleague of theirs in it. She said few women councillors had contributed to the development of their districts. She said that her name with a few others was included in the list after their protest. The civil award could not be given on the Women’s Day as planned, she said.

“The names of 11 women councillors were sent by the district Nazim to the scrutiny committee, but most of the names, including mine, were removed from the final list,” she said.

The councillors protested against the exclusion of their names from the list and informed senior minister Sirajul Haq about it, who directed the district government to hold an inquiry into the matter.

“The chairperson of the committee for community development and social welfare has done nothing so far and has taken all the credit for  the development works of the district government, whereas I am working on the CNG by-laws, sports and culture. I have also written a thesis on the 33 per cent representation of women on the elected forums,” Ms Tehmas claimed.

Shamim Qaiser Khan, a member of the committee for community development and social welfare, alleged that the chairperson of the committee, Shumaila Tabasum, didn’t take the members into confidence.

She said the tussle between the chairperson and herself started when she competed for the post of chairperson.

She alleged that the chairperson had prepared a report on the performance of the committee and presented it in the council without sharing it with the members.  “Merit should be the criteria for the nomination,” she said.

She said she was a member of the National Democratic Women’s Association. “I have always raised voice when the rights of women were violated,” she claimed.

Ms Tabbasum, when contacted, said she didn’t attend the previous  district council session and she had no knowledge about her nomination.

She said the councillors were elected for solving the problems of their localities and they should not give much importance to awards and rewards.