MANSEHRA: Local government minister Inayatullah Khan on Monday said the provincial government wouldn’t release development funds to the village and neighbourhood councils failing to utilise two-thirds of the previous funding.

The minister told a meeting of local government representatives here that development funds for the village and neighbourhood councils across the province except Haripur and Chitral districts were withheld during the current financial year as those local bodies didn’t utilise the previous year’s such funding.

He said the government had released Rs14 billion development funds to village and neighbourhood councils in financial year 2016-17 but the latter couldn’t even utilise 70 percent of those allocations.

“The government would not release development funds to districts where village and neighbourhood councils failed to utilise 70 percent of funds of previous year,” said Mr Khan.

Nazims inform minister of problems facing village, neighbourhood councils

He said village and neighbourhood councils in Chitral and Haripur met to target of 70 percent utilisation of funds and they were released development chuck of ongoing financial year.

The minister said if Mansehra’s village and neighbourhood councils completed more than 66 percent work on schemes, withheld funds would be released to them.

Nazmeen Ittehad general secretary Basharat Ali Swati informed the minister about the problems facing village and neighbourhood councils due to denial of funds.

MARYAM DUE ON FRIDAY: Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of deposed prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, will address her first ever public meeting in Mansehra district, the hometown of her husband Mohammad Safdar, on Friday.

The two had married three decades ago.

“We will give a warm welcome to Maryam Nawaz on arrival here in Baffa on Friday to address a social media convention,” PML-N MPA Salah Mohammad Khan told reporters here on Monday.

He said it would Maryam’s first public appearance in the area after marriage and that she would sensitise young workers to the use of social media to achieve the party’s goals.

SUSPECTED KILLER HELD: The Mansehra police have arrested a man on the charge of killing three bothers over a land dispute in Khaki area here.

DSP (central) Malik Ayaz told reporters here that Amir Habib had gunned down rivals, including Mohammad Rashid and his brothers Mohammad Sohail and Mohammad Qaisar, last month and fled.

He said the police also recovered a pistol and a gun from the suspect in Batdarian area.

Te DSP said the police would produce the suspect in the court for physical remand.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2018