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FAISALABAD, Aug 16: The district council has expressed its dismay over delay in release of funds for the construction and maintenance of roads.
Presiding over a session of the council here on Saturday, convener B. K. Tabish observed that the tussle between the finance and works departments was the main cause of delay.
He noted with concern that despite passage of more than two months of the financial year, funds have not yet been released for various development projects.
Replying to a question, the EDO (works) said the finance department had so far released only Rs2 million of the total Rs40 million meant for maintenance of roads.
The convener asked him to provide details of the expenditure of sugar cess for the construction and maintenance of roads.
On another agenda item, councillors blamed the government officials for misappropriating funds on account of purchase of different articles in their respective departments. They also alleged that hundreds of daily wage workers had been shown in the official record but actually the salaries of these ‘ghost workers’ were being embezzled.
The district zakat officer has been summoned for Aug 18 for explaining his position with regard to certain questions and observations made by some members of the council regarding working of the zakat committees.
He also sought details of the district Baitul Maal committee membership and its working from the social welfare department on the points raised by some members about misappropriation of funds and unlawful acquisition of grants.
The house also directed the EDO Community Development to make arrangements for refresher courses for 56 sub-inspectors of the cooperative department to enable them to guide the growers about the use of modern implements.
Those who spoke on the occasion were Tariq Bashir Ghauri, Shrafat Ali Khan, Fayyazul Hasan, Iqbal Qureshi, Zulfiqar Kamoka, Ashfaq Awan, Manzoor Ahmad, Rana Naeem Dastgir and others.
NAIB NAZIM’S POLLS: Five candidates are in the race for the office of district Naib Nazim.
They are; Raza Nasrullah Ghumman, Allama Tahirul Hasan, Naeem Dastgir, Raja Nasir Shakil and Shaukat Manj.
Raza Ghumman contested the general election for a National Assembly seat on the PPP ticket but lost. However, he joined the PML-Q and was nominated as its candidate for Naib Nazim by the chief minister.
Tahirul Hasan, former president of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, has no roots among the councillors community.
Naeem Dastgir is the Nazim of a union council and an activist of the PPP and known as vocal member of the district council.
Shaukat Manj is a brother of union council Nazim Bashrat Manj, who is said to be close associate of PPP MPA Raja Riaz Ahmad.
Raja Nasir has been in the political arena for the last so many years but he was unable to upset the election results.
The local leadership of the PPP (Parliamentarians), PML-N and MMA have not yet announced their strategy for the elections.
It may be remembered that Zahid Nazir and Afzal Sahi were elected Nazim and Naib Nazim respectively in the local bodies elections defeating PPP’s Raja Riaz Ahmad and JI’s Sardar Zafar. The office of Naib Nazim fell vacant after the election of Mr Sahi as Punjab Assembly Speaker.
The bye-elections for this seat are scheduled to be held on September 8.
