GILGIT, Sept 29: The Northern Areas administration has asked the union and district councils not to use their offices and facilities in election campaigns and ordered recovery of vehicles being used by LB chairmen in all the five districts of the region.

Sources said that the administration had also curtailed powers of the union and district councils, including the five municipal committees, but had not abolished these. "They have been asked not to use their facilities for the electioneering," the sources said.

They said that the administration had ordered police to seize official vehicles being used by the chairmen in five districts as a preemptive measure lest the vehicles were used in election campaigns of the candidates either in the Northern Areas Legislative Council elections or the local bodies.