RAWALPINDI: Terming the action of Mayor Sardar Naseem Khan and union council chairmen to break into the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) offices unlawful, the civic body officials have made a complaint to the commissioner who is also city administrator to take legal action against them.

On the other hand, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem Khan said that he and union council chairmen had not done anything illegal and just opened his offices following the Supreme Court verdict given on March 25.

On July 8, Rawalpindi Mayor and Union council chairmen from both treasury and opposition went to RMC offices to get the charge of their offices after the announcement of detailed judgment of Supreme Court in which it restored the local government and asked the elected representatives to start work.

However, RMC officials reported to the commissioner that the mayor and union council chairmen broke into the RMC offices and he should take legal action against them. When asked, a senior official of RMC said: “The commissioner has not taken any decision on the complaint as the Punjab government is still confused on the issue.”

Ask commissioner to take action against Sardar Naseem

He said the provincial law department was still collecting experts’ legal opinions over the judgment and it would come up with a decision in a day or two in this regard.

“After the detailed judgment of the apex courts, the provincial government was left with no option but to restore the local government system in the province,” he said.

When contacted, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem said he was not afraid of any ‘legal’ action as they had not done anything wrong.

“We opened the offices of the mayor as per directives of the Supreme Court and if we are served with notices by the commissioner we will take them to the courts,” he said.

He said the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench had also stopped the municipal corporation authorities from carrying out Pirwadhai bus stand shops auction following the Supreme Court decision.

The LHC in its decision said that they could not do it without the consultations of mayor and elected representatives.

He said the Punjab government was continuously bypassing the Supreme Court decision and they had filed a contempt of court petition with the apex court which would take it up on July 18.

He said the RMC session was called on Saturday but canceled as the PML-N union council chairmen were busy in Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections meeting called by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

He said that new date for holding the session would be announced in a day or two.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2021