JHANG, July 2: Union council nazims belonging to the opposition in the district assembly have strongly objected to the diversion of massive district govt funds, supposed to be evenly distributed among all union councils of the district , to the national assembly constituency of his son-in-law by the Jhang district nazim.

A recently issued press release from the office of the district nazim suggested that funds to the tune of Rs23.2 million had been specially allocated by the district nazim for the improvement in education facilities in villages situated in the national assembly constituency of Mehboob Sultan, the nephew and son-in-law of Jhang district nazim Sahibzada Sultan Hameed.

According to the press release, Rs20 million are to be spent on the establishment of a girls degree college in village 18-Hazari and Rs 3,200,000 have been allocated for the repair of the buildings of girls primary schools at Choukan Janpur, Malkana, Binda Rasheed, Kot Bahadur and Jamali Kalan.

An education department source, on the condition of anonymity, revealed that the school buildings in the villages, though old, were in good condition and did not require immediate repairs at this stage.

About the sanctioning of a girls degree college at 18 Hazari, the source further revealed that there already existed two higher secondary schools for the girls in the area, where the number of students was so low that the government was already considering the closure of one of them, which made the opening of a girls degree college in the area as highly unjustifiable and politically motivated.

A UC nazim from the Jhang Saddar area, criticising the nazim, told Dawn that these funds should have been spent on starting post-graduate classes at the local girls degree college.

The nazim said that there were post-graduate classes in various subjects in the boys degree college where most of the parents were not inclined to send their girls due to co-education.

During his last visit to Jhang, Governor Khalid Maqbool had in response to a representation made by the parents of the girl students, announced the launching of post-graduate classes in six subjects at the govt degree college for girls and directed the district nazim who was present on the occasion to make all necessary financial arrangements to implement the decision.

But the district nazim has so far failed to arrange funds for this urgent cause. The UC nazim said that instead of spending huge funds to improve the election prospects of his son-in-law, the district nazim could have spent the amount for constructing a post-graduate block at the degree college for girls, Jhang Sadar.