LAHORE, March 24: The government will not use district Nazims for political motives during the general elections. But, there will be no restriction on Nazims and other members of district councils to contest the polls.

This was stated by Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool while talking to reporters after attending the general body meeting of the Defence Forces Veterans Association here on Sunday.

He said the law governing the local bodies was continuously being amended to remove loopholes being pointed out from time to time. But the local government affairs concerning the provision of justice and law would continue to be handled by the administration.

He said the provincial government was satisfied with the performance of district governments especially during the Afghan crisis and with regard to the maintenance of law and order. He said there were thousands of councillors in each district council and a complaint by one of them was not a strange thing.

He said demarcation of constituencies was the job of the election commission and he was not aware of the process.

The governor said the ARD was stopped from holding its public meeting at Mochi Gate in view of Muharram activities at the place.

Earlier, speaking at the meeting, the governor said he was also a retired soldier and could have narrated many problems like other veterans. But, he said, he would prefer to mention the steps taken by the government in the best national interest.

It was very easy for the military regime to make tall claims like the past rulers or to reduce the prices of essential items. This would have increased its popularity but proved disastrous for the country. Therefore, the government adopted the difficult path of putting the country on the road to prosperity and took some hard decisions which enhanced Pakistan’s respect in the world, he said.

The governor admitted that the government steps had not given any relief to the people and the inflation increased but no-one could claim that the decisions had benefited a certain few. He said with the steps taken by the government, no-one could now dare to suppress the people. He mentioned different measures taken for the welfare of the people, and said the police guard for the people would be replaced by the guards comprising retired armymen.

He announced a donation of Rs1 million for the association whose president Lt-Gen Ghulam Safdar Butt (retired) said terrorism was creating instability in the country and this could only be tackled with military courts.

Association secretary-general Col Mehmood Ali (retired) and other defence veterans also spoke on the occasion.