MUZAFFARGARH, Aug 15: A five-member team of the Punjab Local Government Commission reached here on Wednesday for investigation of the district council’s budget session which was held on July 18.

PML nazims claim that the Rs374 million budget for the year 2007-08 was passed in the presence of only 28 union council nazims. While district nazim Qayyum Jatoi asserts that 70 nazims were present in the house.

To pass the budget, it may be mentioned, the presence of 68 nazims in the house is mandatory.

The opposition party which belongs to Q-League boycotted the session chaired by Jamshaid Dasti and they called another session under the chair of Allah Dad Khar there.

The session called by PML-Q was attended by 86 union nazims.

On July 30, the team of the district nazim who belongs to the PPP gave the budget copy to Finance EDO Dr Wasif Khursheed for approval.

The EDO sent the copies to District Coordination Officer Dr Akhtar Nazir Warraich for approval. The DCO, instead of approving the budget, referred the matter to the local council commission.

Sources in the local council commission told Dawn the DCO had informed the local government secretary that in the session called by the district nazim there were only 36 union council nazim. The matter was referred to the Punjab Local Government Commission. Now the commission reached here with five members.

The members of the commission team are: Lt Col (Retd) Mohammad Shahbaz, Bashir Sheikh, Mohammad Iqbal Sadozai, Kaleem Hayat and Khawaja Imran.

Sources said that the team was investigating into the number of nazims present in the session of district nazim. They would also check the signatures of nazims on the budget document. The commission is likely to complete the task in a day or two.

PML-Q nazim Allah Dad Khar said all nazims belonging to the PML-Q would submit a form declaring that they had not put signature on the budget document and that they had not attended the session called by the district nazim.

On the other hand, district nazim’s representative Jamshaid Dasti criticised the DCO for referring the budget matter to the commission, saying the DCO should have informed the district nazim about any objection over the budget document.