LAHORE, Aug 7: Thirty-six members of the district council have demanded impeachment of Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood for interfering in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town affairs and victimizing the UC Nazims affiliated with opposition parties.

Addressing a press conference, Mazhar Iqbal Bhalli Butt and 35 other Nazims of union councils said that the district Nazim had vitiated the local government atmosphere by trying to destabilize the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town administration and holding inquiries against the UC Nazims belonging to opposition parties on applications of PML-Q men.

They said the Nazim was running the district affairs in a dictatorial manner. He was using the council only for advancing his own political agenda. He ensured adoption of resolutions that he favoured while his cronies did not allow members of the opposition even to speak in the house.

They said that the Nazim was pursuing policies of interference and victimization to divert the attention of people from his failure to manage the civic affairs of the city district. They said accumulation of rain water on roads and streets in the present rainy season spoke volumes for the inefficiency of his administration.

They said that sanitation management was far from satisfactory. The UC Nazims belonging to opposition political parties were being discriminated against and development funds not being allocated for their constituencies. No scheme for development of any school had been sanctioned during the past two years, and schools in the areas of opposition UC Nazims were not even being repaired.

They appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to take notice of the undemocratic activities of district Nazim, which were undermining the newly-introduced district government system, and order his impeachment.

The Awam Dost Group UC Nazims were led by Zahid Ali Shah and Javed Iqbal Khan at the press conference. Khwaja Salman Rafiq and Shoaib Khan Niazi led the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Nazims while Naveed Sadiq and Ilyas Khan led the Jamaat-i-Islami.