PESHAWAR, July 4: Outgoing Peshawar Nazim Azam Afridi has said that if the provincial governments stop interference in the affairs of district governments, the local government system would certainly deliver to the people. Speaking to newsmen at the Peshawar Press Club on Sunday, he said wherever he had gone abroad during his tenure as district nazim, he observed that the local governments were free of provincial or central governments’ pressure. This was the only system which dealt with people’s basic civic problems, he added.

He said that the provincial governments mistook them (district governments) as their rivals and started interfering in their day-to-day affairs which multiplied problems of the people. Mr Afridi said that they had worked to remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks in the system, but the provincial governments had encouraged the unwarranted role of the officialdom into the fledgling system.

He said they had tried to ensure the people’s participation into the local government system, while the provincial governments created hurdles to restrain its smooth sailing.

After winning the referendum, Gen Muharraf had forgotten his economic package of 200 tube wells, 200 transformers and six colleges for the city. The District Government, however, built at least five colleges for women, he added.—Bureau Report