RAWALPINDI, Jan 12: Civic activities in Rawalpindi district have come to a virtual halt as the heads of town municipal administrations (TMAs) have concentrated their energies on the election campaign of their relatives seeing them in trouble after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Dawn learnt on Saturday that complaints filed by residents about municipal issues with various TMAs were piling up without any response from the civic agencies to solve them.

The town nazims who are close relatives of the contesting candidates of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) have not spared even a single day to visit their offices since the assassination of Ms Bhutto.

Official sources said the town nazims who were campaigning for their candidates had handed over the responsibility of looking after the affairs of TMAs to town municipal officers (TMOs). A TMO told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the town nazims were not only uninterested in municipal sector due to their political engagements but they had also engaged the staff of TMAs with the candidates of the king’s party.

He disclosed that the resources of Rawal, Potohar, Taxila and Murree towns were being blatantly misused in the election campaign of the candidates who were close relatives of the heads of the towns.

Even City Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas has not yet been able to attend his office as he is intensely engaged in the election campaign of his young son Qasim Javed Ikhlas, who is contesting election from Gujar Khan against PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Mr Ikhlas is also chairman of Rawalpindi Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency and, according to officials, unlike in the past he has not issued directives to the management of the two civic agencies regarding municipal activities in the city.

Similarly, a source in the Potohar Town said the residents were bedevilled with sanitation and water problems due to lack of interest on part of the civic managers, adding that the town nazim Hamid Nawaz Raja was busy in the election campaign of PML- Q’s Raja Basharat from NA-54, who was his cousin and brother-in- law.

Interestingly, the Potohar town on Saturday released a press statement of Mr Basharat by utilising the resources of the town.

Nasir Mir, naib nazim Dhoke Ratta, complained that the people in his constituency were facing a host of problems while the town administration was focusing its attention on the election campaign of their relatives.

Satellite Town nazim Mian Imran said streets of the locality were inundated with rainwater but the civic agencies were nowhere to be seen.

When contacted, city nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas denied that the civic agencies and town nazims were not interested in civic issues. He said the district government was engaged in taking security measures for Muharram, adding people’s issues were the top priority of his administration.