LAYYAH: The municipal committee (MC) lacks funds for development and provision of civic amenities to people for the last one year. The committee is not even paying pensions to its retired officials due to shortage of funds.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had promised to enable the local governments by constitutionally empowering them with political, administrative and economical independence. But, it seems that the government’s priorities had changed, as instead of facilitating the local bodies, it is not providing even meagre funds to the MC due to which development works of the municipality had come to a halt for over a year.

Some disgruntled pensioners had filed a writ petition in the high court that issued directions to the finance secretary, but the pensioners were still waiting for their dues.

The previous PML-N provincial government provided Rs10 million to the Layyah municipal committee in 2017, but the new government has not provided a single penny so far, claimed a municipal finance officer.

The committee has not paid pension to 20 of its pensioners for four months. It required Rs3.3m a month for the payment of pensions. According to the data available from the committee, it owed Rs50m to the unpaid pensioners.

Masood Khan, an elderly pensioner while talking to Dawn, maintained: “I am suffering from diabetes and heart diseases and I am unable to purchase medicines to save my life.”

Councillor Afzaal Khan claimed that due to unavailability of funds they were not able to carry out development and cleanliness of their respective wards because of which they were facing immense public pressure.

Another councillor, Malik Aziz, said that the government should provide development funds regularly for the municipalities of underdeveloped areas. He hoped for allocation of significant funds for the local government in the annual budget.

Municipal committee Chairman Hafiz Jamil Ahmad said: “We have already demanded funds from the finance department for the discharge of pending liabilities of pension. We are trying our best to pay the pensions to elderly pensioners.”

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2019