GUJRAT: The Gujrat Municipal Corporation’s newly elected mayor, Tahir Mahmood Maanda, of the PML-N took oath of his office on Friday at a time when the fate of the local government system in Punjab hangs in the balance.

The new local government law was passed by the provincial assembly on Tuesday last and it would come into effect the moment the Punjab Governor signs it.

Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Jameel administered the oath to the mayor at a brief ceremony held at the District Government Complex where Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Dr Khurram Shahzad, former mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood, Deputy Mayor Asif Mehmda and other members of the Gujrat MC were also present.

Mr Maanda had been elected as the second mayor of the Gujrat MC in the election held on April 17 by defeating Mian Pervez Akhtar Pagganwala, the joint candidate of the PML-Q and the PTI with a close margin. The winner took 11 and runners-up secured eight votes.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had issued the formal notification of Mr Maanda’s success on Thursday and May 3 was fixed for the oath taking of the mayor.

Earlier in the day, the local PML-N workers and elected members of the Gujrat MC were shocked when the returning officer (assistant commissioner) did not reach the corporation offices at the fixed time of 9am.

The district administration and the district election commissioner were approached by the local PML-N leaders to express their concern over what they alleged a tactic to delay the oath in a bid to keep the mayor away from the corporation so that the recently passed law is notified by the Punjab governor.

However, the oath ceremony finally took place around 3.30pm upon the arrival of the assistant commissioner who had reportedly gone out of station for a court hearing.

Meanwhile, speaking to a news conference in the mayor office soon after the ceremony, Mr Maanda, former mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood and chairmen of the union councils blamed the ruling coalition for patronising the land mafia. They said the incidents of illegal occupation of the land and properties had once again surfaced in Gujrat.

The mayor pledged to improve the sanitary conditions of the city and regularise the jobs of daily wage sanitary workers of the Corporation who had been striving for the purpose for long.

The re-election of the mayor had been conducted after the first mayor of Gujrat MC Haji Nasir Mehmood was de-seated by the ECP on the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a fake degree case.

Enrolment target: Gujrat district has achieved the maximum target of enrolment of students in kachi (nursery) class in government schools followed by Gujranwala and Mandi Bahauddin districts.

The provincial capital Lahore stands at the fourth position in achieving the target set during the campaign run by local authorities in the education and literacy departments and the district administration across Punjab for the year 2019-20.

According to official data confirmed by authorities in the education department, Gujrat district has achieved 58.86 per cent of the target. As many as 29,290 students were enrolled in the district against the target of 49,759 consisting of 14,323 boys and 14,960 girls.

Gujrat District Monitoring Officer Faisal Sultan told Dawn that the ratio achieved in the enrolment drive was a result of the hard work by the staff of the education department particularly teachers and consistent monitoring by the administration.

He added that this was a proof of the confidence showed by parents in government schools as the district’s ranking among other districts of Punjab regarding education and literacy indicators had also improved as compared to the previous quarter.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2019