PESHAWAR: The treasury and opposition members of the Peshawar district council on Monday staged a protest outside the provincial assembly’s building here accusing the government of not providing development funds to the three tiers of the local government system in the province.

PTI councillor Rehman Afzal threw petrol on himself but other members of the council thwarted the self-immolation bid by stopping him from setting fire to himself.

Shouting slogans against the provincial government, the protesters warned that they would put up a hunger strike camp outside the assembly’s building if the funds weren’t released to them without delay.

The district council had approved the Rs686 million annual development programme in the 2017-18 financial year before the district government issued tenders for the projects.

Treasury, opposition demonstrate against govt outside PA

However, the finance department released only Rs310 million during the year.

In the current fiscal, the district government approved Rs700 million ADP but got only Rs350 million from the provincial government. The local government spent the money on the pending development work.

Addressing protesters, Awami National Party councillor Alamzeb Yousafzai accused the provincial government of ignoring the local government system and said the situation had embarrassed members of the local bodies before the people.

He said the councillors had promised to bring the people development funds but they failed to fulfil the promise.

The councillor said the government had failed to release the rightful share of the local bodies in the province’s development funds.

He criticised the district government for not paying honoraria to the council members in the last two years.

PTI member Akhtar Ali demanded of the provincial government to release development funds allocated for the fiscal’s third and fourth quarters saying denial of funds has left work on many development schemes incomplete.

He said if funds were not released, then the PTI workers would agitate against own party’s provincial government.

Pakistan Peoples Party councillor Jamil Khan said work on development schemes had come to a halt due to the unavailability of funds to the misery of the people.

“The contractors have moved their equipment away from project sites as they know that the city district government has no funds for them,” he said.

The councillor asked the government not to abolish district councils saying the local government system would be ineffective in the absence of this important tier.

Council members Gul Bashar, Raham Dil Nawaz and Rehman Afzal also addressed protesters.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2019