MULTAN, Oct 3: The district council, Multan, has approved an increase of 450 per cent in the discretionary fund of the Zila Nazim, raising the allocation from Rs10m to Rs55m.

Immediate casualties of this decision are health and education sectors as Rs10m have been slashed from the funds allocated for the college of home economics, Rs10m from the education and Rs5m from the health allocations.

None of the council members objected to the unprecedented raise in the nazim’s discretionary funds, that too, at the cost of two vital sectors. The house approved the raise unanimously.

Several members of the council complained that the cotton crop had been badly hit by pest attack, especially American and army bollworms, but the appropriate pesticides were missing from the market.

Zila Nazim Riaz Qureshi observed that the pesticides were imported keeping in view the demand of previous years and the shortage was owing to unusual pest attack.

However, the council members differed with the Nazim and pointed out that the required pesticides were available in blackmarket. They urged the nazim to organize raids on the ware houses of pesticides firms.

The house expressed grief over the sad demise of veteran leader Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and offered fateha for the departed soul.

PPP MEETING: PPP’s Multan division council has praised the political courage of Asif Ali Zardari for not succumbing to the official pressure despite being in jail for the last seven years.