MANSEHRA: The PTI-led opposition in Mansehra district council has announced that it will move the Peshawar High Court if the PML-N-led district government ignores legal formalities for passing the current fiscal’s budget.

“The budget presented by the district nazim on August 13 doesn’t stand approved and if the district government attempts to bulldoze legal formalities to declare it approved, we will take it to the court,” opposition leader in the district council Shahid Rafiq told reporters here on Saturday.

Nazim Sardar Said Ghulam had presented the Rs9.21 billion budget for 2018-19 earlier this week and later announced that it had been approved.

Mr Rafiq said the district government required 45 votes to pass the budget but it could secure only 41.

“When I pointed out a lack of quorum in the house, the nazim and his party members stood up and created a mess to give the impression that budget has been passed,” he said.

The opposition leader said the local government department’s deputy director, who by virtue of his office was the council secretary, also agreed with him and considered the budget to be unapproved.

He said the opposition councillors would move the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Commission and Peshawar High Court if the district government declared the budget approved.

POWER OUTAGES PROTESTED: The Tehreek-i-Sooba Hazara on Saturday protested the excessive power cuts in Mansehra and demanded smooth supply of electricity.

“All local residents regularly pay electricity bills but even then, they’re subjected to power suspension for more than 12 hours daily. We won’t tolerate these power cuts,” TSH convener Mushtaq Khan told reporters here.

Mr Mushtaq said the power cuts lasted more than 14 hours a day in remote parts of Mansehra district.

“If the government doesn’t end the current spate of excessive loadshedding, we will come onto the streets to lodge protest,” he said.

The TSH leader said the people of Lohar Banda had no electricity for three days due to the failure of the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company to repair or change faulty transformer. A TSH delegation later met the deputy commissioner and asked him for resolution of the excessive power cuts.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018