LAHORE, Feb 11: Scores of district council members, including chairmen of its monitoring committees, are absent from three or more consecutive meetings of the council and stand disqualified from their seats but no action has so far been initiated against them.

The Section 152 (p) of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 says that any member who absents himself without reasonable cause from three consecutive meetings of the council does not qualify to remain its member provided that the absence is not necessitated by a national emergency or force majeure.

Official record reveals that so far six council meetings had been held since the house came into being in 2005 and at least 16 members have missed from three to six consecutive sessions.

They include two chairmen of house monitoring committees. UC-121 nazim Malik Mudassar Khokhar, head of the agriculture committee, has never turned up in the last three consecutive meetings. UC-116 nazim Sajjad Rabbani, who chairs the cooperative department committee, has been found absent in all the six council sittings.

Of general members, Laiq Ahmad (UC-29 nazim) has been absent for the last four meetings; Shahid Masood Butt (UC-30 nazim) and Tahir Islam (UC-31 nazim) for the last five; Khalid Aziz (UC-45 nazim) for the last six; Khaleeq Butt (UC-81 nazim) for the last five; Saifur Rahman (UC-127 nazim), Haji Fayyaz (UC-128 nazim) and Ghulam Shabbir Bhatti (UC-147 nazim) have been absent for the past three consecutive meetings.

Shehzad Azam (UC-91 nazim) has been missing for the last four meetings.

Since he is under arrest in some case, he is exempt from disqualification clause under the law.

From among district members on seats reserved for women, Ghazala Saad Rafiq (the wife of PML-N leader Saad Rafiq) has missed the last four consecutive meetings while Shehnaz Chaudhry and Azara Pervez have not attended the last three meetings each.

For the seats reserved for men, Khawaja Tahir Zia (the provincial price control committee chairman) and minority member Babar Shehzad have not attended the last three consecutive meetings.—Amjad Mahmood