RAWALPINDI, June 24: Nazim Sheikh Rashid Shafiq presented a partial budget to the Rawal Town Council for the financial year 2008-09 on Tuesday as the Punjab government has barred all local governments from announcing their development budgets.

Treasury members politically associated with the former ruling party, Muslim League-Q, and forming the majority in the council, staged a walkout after the Nazim had presented a Rs227.5 million non-development budget to protest the ban.

Opposition members affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the occasion raised slogans against the Lahore High Court ruling that stopped their leader Nawaz Sharif from contesting a by-election. But the unusual protest by treasury members appeared to overshadow the back-benchers.

Even some of the PML-N councillors confided to Dawn that they considered the ban imposed by their party, ruling Punjab, “unjust and vengeful” but did not wish to be identified.

PML-Q members were bitter that they had a Rs126 million tax-free development budget ready but the ban prevented them from announcing their uplift plans.

The non-development budget estimates the Town’s income in the new year to be Rs341.5 million, with a carry-over of Rs32 million which remained unutilised in the outgoing year.

Nazim Shafiq told the council that his administration carried out a number of development projects in the Rawal Town in the last two years and nine months but the ban put on development expenditure by the Punjab government set at naught an allocation of Rs900,000 made for each member of the council in this year budget for the purpose.

In the outgoing year 92 development schemes worth Rs57 million were completed, the year before 126 schemes worth Rs60 million and in the year 2005-06 over 90 development schemes were completed at a cost of Rs72.5 million, he said.

“But this time, we have been stopped by the Punjab government from undertaking or approving development schemes. We disapprove the ban and would tell the people that the new government was not pro-poor and was against development,” the town nazim said.

He also criticised the Punjab government for abandoning Leh Expressway Project in order to discredit former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who had launched the project.

“I would appeal to the new rulers of Punjab to rename the multi-billion-rupee project after themselves but not abandon it because it is for the welfare of the people. We would not resist in case Shahbaz Sharif names the project after himself,” said the Town nazim who is nephew of Sheikh Rashid.