PESHAWAR, May 9: The city district government has requested the provincial government to grant it permission to buy a 3,000cc heavy-duty jeep to be used by the district nazim.

Officials said the NWFP Local Government and Rural Development Department had recently received a formal request from the city district government for the purchase of a 3,000cc jeep.

The department will soon forward a summary to this effect to Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani for approval, they said.

The provincial government, the officials maintained, had already allowed the city district government to purchase a 1,300cc vehicle for the use of district nazim, but now it wanted a 3,000cc jeep for the purpose.

They said the city district government had appealed to the provincial government that since the district comprised 95 union councils, mostly located in the rural areas, the 1,300cc vehicle would not meet its requirements.

Informed sources told Dawn that a 3,000cc jeep of model 2005-06 would cost the city district government Rs4 million to Rs5 million.

At present a Land Cruiser of 1998 model is in the use of the nazim, but the city district government does not own it.

According to District Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali, the vehicle in question, originally the property of the health department, had been given to former city nazim by former NWFP governor Iftikhar Hussain for a period of three years.

He claimed that the health department now wanted the vehicle back.