LAHORE, Dec 25: Nazims of 20 districts (in Punjab) on Thursday urged Governor Salmaan Taseer to play his constitutional role of “protecting the local governments from the PML-N government otherwise he would be responsible for any clash between them”.

Speaking at a news conference at the Lahore Press Club, they threw down the gauntlet to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to face them on Jan 15, 2009, at the same place to prove that anyone of them had been indulged in corruption.

“His government is declaring audit paras proven corruption, though they are just initial objections which are normally cleared through the set legal procedure,” they said while taking exception to what they called hijacking of the local government system by the provincial government through the administrative machinery.

They said they had written him (the governor) a letter, asking him to immediately play his constitutional role of protecting the local governments against the Punjab setup’s highhandedness.

“We are genuinely elected representatives of people and our supporters can rise against the provincial government. But we have so far been observing restraint and just told the governor that he will be responsible for the consequences of any reaction if it emerges against the illegal actions of the provincial government,” the nazims said.

Attock Nazim Tahir Sadiq, a retired major, said if audit objections were proven corruption then according to PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad the federal governments from 1989 to date were facing 2,300 audit objections to the tune of Rs1.5 trillion. The PML-N Punjab government of 1997-99 was also to clear audit objections of Rs43 billion, he said.

He said the special audit of the local governments’ financial affairs was illegal because it was ordered by the provincial administration. Such an audit could be ordered only by the district nazims, he said, but added: “We had allowed it just to let the government find out any corruption in our working.”

He said legally nazims could not indulge in corruption because the DCOs had the sanctioning authority because of their status as the provincial accounting officers. The government wanting the nazims to face courts of law did not itself respect them (the courts). “Instead of facing courts and pleading not guilty, they themselves had preferred to go into exile after striking a deal with the then government in 2000,” he said.

The Attock nazim alleged that the local government minister was indulging in corruption and the seats of government officials in districts were being sold out. “They have squandered Rs930 million as TA/DA for unnecessary shuffling of the entire administrative machinery in districts,” he said while asking as to who would account for the expenditure.

He said the chief minister should merely head a municipal committee because he was apolitical but he had brought to a halt everything in districts, robbing the people of even medicines. “They themselves get medical treatment from London,” he added.

He further alleged that the government had wasted millions of rupees on the appointments of revenue commissioners. And although there was a ban on use of above 1300cc vehicles, he said, the commissioners had been given high-powered luxury vehicles.

Many others nazims said billions of rupees had been put at stake as the government had stopped funds for the ongoing schemes all over the province. They said instead of pursuing the policy of confrontation, the government must take everyone along to enable the country face all challenges.

The other nazims included Mubashar Bhatti (Hafizabad), Chaudhry Tariq Basheer Cheema (Bahawalpur), Rana Zahid Tauseef (Faisalabad), Ahmad Yar Heraj (Khanewal), Raja Javaid Akhlas (Rawalpindi), Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain (Gujrat) and Sardar Ghulam Abbas (Chakwal).