KOHAT, Aug 19: District Kohat Nazim Malik Asad has demanded that the National Reconstruction Bureau chairman should order an inquiry into the interference by the MMA government and the bureaucracy in the district affairs and take disciplinary action against them.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, the Nazim, who survived a no-confidence motion on Saturday, said the district Nazims of the NWFP would discuss the government meddling in the local bodies’ affairs in a day or two and submit a report to the president and the NRB chairman in this regard so that measures could be taken to stop this interference.

Malik Asad alleged that the governor and the chief minister exerted pressure on all the three Kohat MPAs to mobilize councillors in favour of the no-confidence motion against him. He said the worst kind of horse-trading was witnessed at the time of no-confidence motion during which the councillors were bribed by the three MPAs and the UC Nazims and were kept in Nathiagali and Murree for two days before the voting.

He disclosed that the NWFP governor himself told an MNA from Kohat Mufti Ibrar Sultan that if he could get rid of the district Nazim the government in return would spare the Nazim of Bannu district who belonged to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

Expressing concern over the attitude of the MMA leaders, he said they lacked political acumen and the will to serve the masses who voted them to power.

Malik Asad said he would request President Pervez Musharraf to stop the provincial governor from interfering in the local government affairs which he was doing through his younger brother who is the Nazim of union council urban-1.

He vowed to resist all such conspiracies against the local bodies system and exhorted the opposition to refrain from derailing the system and concentrate on the development of the area and serving the people.