FAISALABAD, July 30: City District Assembly members adopted on Wednesday a resolution demanding that the provincial government immediately banish the district coordination officer (DCO) from the district.

The resolution was adopted in the assembly session held under the chair of convener Mian Amjad Yasin. The assembly will meet again on Saturday.

Union Council (UC) Nazim Anjum Niaz tabled the resolution which stated DCO Azam Suleman was giving tough time to UC nazims. He alleged the DCO had told his subordinates and officers of different department not to attend the house affairs. He said the officers were afraid of attending the house proceedings, ignoring the repeated directions of the house.

The resolution incited many UC nazims who rose to register their complaints about the “performance and behaviour” of the DCO. Abrupt speeches from several house members turned the house noisy and no one paid attention to convener’s directions for order in the house.

UC nazim Mushtaq Toor said Mr Suleman had intentionally been posted in Faisalabad with “nefarious designs” to distort the business of the district assembly, as he had earlier done in Multan.

Another nazim, Manzoor, said the district administration had also been playing with laws. The DCO being the head of the district was responsible under the Punjab Budget Rules to update the house about revenue and expenditures every month, however, the situation was otherwise, he added. Similarly, he said, the officer had caused a loss of million of rupees to the district by dealing defaulters, particularly of advertisement, leniently.

Another nazim said they would stage protest demonstration by wearing black armbands, if the DCO tried to sabotage the affairs of the house.

Rana Aftab, Abdul Hafiz, Tariq Kamboh and others also criticised City District Nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef and naib nazim Mr Yasin for, what they said, their silence over the behaviour of the DCO. They demanded that both the city nazim and the naib nazim refrain from having back channel contacts with Mr Suleman.

All nazims raised their hands in favour of the resolution to banish the DCO from the district.

Seeing the mood of other UC nazims, the convener also joined the ranting nazims, saying the DCO had been throwing spanners in the way of development of the district. He said the district assembly had asked the government to transfer a health department official.