PESHAWAR: The opposition parties in the Peshawar district council have announced that they will agitate during the budget session to be held on Tuesday (today) against plan to cut development funds. They also warned of resigning if their demand was not accepted.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, the councillors said like previous year the government had planned to reduce the development funds by 30 per cent this year.

On the occasion, Saeed Zahir of ANP said the provincial government’s plan to provide Rs3.5 million to each councillor was next to nil, adding the Peshawar Development Authority was generating huge funds but the government was least bothered to allocate sufficient budget for the provincial capital.

He said the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar was acquiring huge funds annually but failed to provide clean drinking water to residents and dispose of garbage properly.

He said WSSP had unjustifiably increased water rate by 500 per cent.

Raham Dilnawaz of PML-N suggested abolition of WSSP and empowerment of TMAs and restoration of Peshawar Municipal Corporation in order to restore the historical status of the capital city which was known as ‘city of flowers’.

He pointed out that the government had not been paying honoraria to councillors for last eight months despite allocating Rs100 million in the budget for the purpose.

JI’s Khalid Waqas Chamkani said the local bodies system of former president Gen retired Pervez Musharraf was far better than that of the PTI government, because police and district management officials were bound to attend sessions of the district councils under the former system.

Jameel Khan of PPP and Rehman Afzal of PTI also warned that if the government did not provide them sufficient funds they would wear black armbands and disrupt the Tuesday’s session of the council.

They also expressed reservations over the slow pace of work on the Bus Rapid Transit project and urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to order probe into the delay.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018