RAWALPINDI: A day after the Supreme Court (SC) announced a detailed judgement on restoration of local government in Punjab, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem Khan on Wednesday announced that he would take charge of his office on Thursday (today).

He said all union council chairmen of both the treasury and opposition would accompany him to take charge of the mayor’s office.

On the other hand, the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) officials, requesting not to be named, said they had not received any directive from the provincial government on handing over charge to the elected chairmen.

“The Supreme Court announced its detailed judgement on Tuesday and it has clearly restored the local government. As mayor of Rawalpindi, I will take charge of the office under the directives ofapex court,” Sardar Naseem Khan toldDawn.

He said both the opposition PPP and PTI chairmen would accompany him to the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation.

“Though the meeting of the RMC elected chairmen was called last month, the Punjab government did not allow them to enter the office. We informed the Supreme Court and a contempt of court case was filed against the provincial government for not obeying the apex court’s orders,” he said.

Sardar Naseem said the province had been in the grip of bad governance for the last three years and all the hue and cry of the people was falling on deaf ears of the PTI government.

On the other hand, PPP union council chairman Babar Jadoon said his party supported Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem and all PPP members would accompany him to the RMC office to take charge of his office.

He said they would play their role of opposition in the house, adding that they had differences on civic issues but were united on one point and that was restoration of the local government.

PTI Union Council Chairman Azhar Satti said the local government had been suspended for the last two years and after restoration by the Supreme Court, federal and provincial governments were bound to allow the local bodies to work.

He said the PTI chairmen supported restoration of the local government system but the Punjab government had a different opinion which “we do not agree with”.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2021