LAHORE, March 24: Despite pressure from the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), the Punjab government has no plan to give honoraria to the local government councillors and is considering to allow them only transport and daily allowances for official engagements.

The province is giving honoraria only to Nazims and Naib Nazims of district governments, tehsils or towns and unions. "There are over 70,000 councillors and the provincial government simply cannot afford to give honoraria to all of them," official sources said on Wednesday.

They said the government had not calculated the honoraria amount but it would definitely increase the non-development budget to a great extent. They said a summary had been sent to the provincial finance department to allow TA and DA to councillors which, if approved, would be payable only in case of official engagements like meetings of councils.

They said the Nazims and Naib Nazims were performing full-time jobs whereas the councillors were only required to attend meetings of the councils once a month and were not maintaining offices.

The government is monthly giving Rs15,000 and 10,000 to district Nazims and Naib Nazims, Rs10,000 and 7,000 to tehsil Nazims and Naib Nazims and Rs3,000 and 2,000 to union Nazims and Naib Nazims, respectively. Around 43 per cent of the members of these councils were elected on the reserved seats and Nazims had no funds for them at meetings.