PESHAWAR: Police baton-char­g­ed, used tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of elected representatives of local bodies who were protesting against the provincial government for not releasing development funds since the establishment of local governments in the province about three years ago.

The elected local governments’ re­­presentatives said that the two- tier local governments, which inc­lude tehsil and village and neighbourhood local government, were established in the province after local bodies elections held in December 2021, but since the installation of local governments in the province not a single penny has been released to them for development schemes.

The protesters further said that the provincial government has also failed to devolve administrative powers at the tehsil level after the abolishment of the district tier of the local government system.

Around 500 chairmen of tehsil councils, village councils, neighbourhood councils and members of these councils gathered from different parts of the province at Jinnah Park, Peshawar.

Around 500 chairmen of tehsil, village councils hold protest against non-release of funds

Prominent among the protesters were Peshawar Mayor Zubair Ali, chairman of Pishtakhera tehsil council Haroon Sifat and Chairman of Pabbi Tehsil council Ghayyur Khattak.

They took out a procession from the park and marched on the busy Khyber Road towards the Chief Minister House to stage a sit-in there.

They chanted slogans against the provincial government, terming it anti-local government.

As the protesters reached the building of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, police closed the road with security gate to stop their movement towards the chief minister house.

The protesters, however, broke the gate and continued their march towards the chief minister house.

The police then fired tear gas and water cannon on the protestors, forcing them to move back. When the protesters were stopped, they blocked the Khyber Road for all kinds of vehicular traffic which led to huge traffic jams on other roads of the provincial capital.

The provincial president of Awami National Party, Mian Iftikhar Hus­sain, also addressed the protesters and condemned the use of tear gas by police against peaceful protestors.

“Protest for their rights is the constitutional right of the local bodies’ representatives,” the ANP leader said. He said the PTI raises hue and cry whenever the federal governm­e­­nt stops it from holding a rally in Isla­m­abad while its own KP government has used tear gas and baton-charged elected representatives.

In the evening, the protesters called off their protest after a delegation met Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who assured them that their demands would be resolved. The chief minister also promised them that soon after the PTI’s scheduled protest in Islamabad on September 8, a meeting would be held between the government and local bodies’ representatives.

In the meeting, the chief minister said, heads of the administrative de­­partments would be summoned to resolve the issue of funds and devolution of administrative powers.

One of the protesters, a Member of Tehsil Council Pabbi Taimur Ka­­m­­al, told Dawn that with the abolishment of the district government, the provincial government had deci­ded that some important departm­e­nts would be devolved to tehsil level.

These departments, he said, included education, health, social welfare, youth affairs, agriculture, public health, sports and livestock.

He said the provincial government has failed to establish offices of these departments at tehsil level.

Similarly, he said, the provincial government has not devolved administrative powers of these departments and, instead, it has empowered the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners to use such powers on the pretext that the devolution of these departments were in transitional period.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024