MINGORA, July 15: Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that the local governments would stay despite the provincial government’s plans to roll back the system.

The minister was speaking at different functions organized by the Swat Bar Council and the District Council on Tuesday.

Mr Sherpao also addressed a joint meeting of the Swat and Matta tehsil councils on Monday.

He severely criticized the MMA government, saying it had totally failed to live up to people’s expectations. The incompetence of the provincial government could be judged by the fact that international donor agencies had stopped funding development schemes in the province, he said.

He said that the MMA government managed to pass a controversial Shariat Bill. It was the same bill which had been prepared by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in English and the MMA only produced its Urdu version, he added.

Mr Sherpao said that the MMA had launched a movement against the local government system, but it would keep on functioning. President Gen Pervez Musharraf and his team had established the local government system in the best interest of the nation, he added.

About smearing of signboards by the MMA workers in Peshawar, Mr Sherpao said that the act had scared off foreign investors, resulting in a huge loss to the province.

The public had nothing to do with the Legal Framework Order, but wanted solutions to their basic problems, he said.

Mr Sherpao said that the MMA had failed to address the problems of the common public.

The minister also announced to provide power transformers to the 65 union councils of Swat, saying that work on two feeders in the area would be completed soon.

Earlier, the minister in his speech to the Swat District Bar officials announced a donation of Rs50,000 for their library.