JHANG, Jan 8: Women Nazims, Naib Nazims and councillors have strongly criticized the National Reconstruction Bureau and the government for reducing the number of union council members from 21 to 13 as a result of which women's representation in each union council would also decrease.

Mrs Perveen Afza Sheikh, the president of Women Councillors Network, said at a press conference here on Friday the government decision would restrict the women's representation in the local councils. She claimed that the number of women councillors would reduce to 18,000 from present 37,000.

She also expressed her apprehension about the rumours regarding decrease in the number of union councils by merging into each other.

This, she said, would further reduce women's representation in the local government institutions.

Mrs Sheikh, who claims to represent women councillors of the district belonging to all political parties and groups, also expressed her reservations over the electoral college for the election of district, tehsil and city Nazims.

She said women councillors demanded direct elections to these office.

She claimed that the government wanted indirect elections with a reduced number of electorate only to be in a position to influence a handful of voters to vote in favour of their nominees rather than to face the masses and take a risk of losing the election.

She demanded payment of TA/DA to women, labour and minority councillors and allocation of development funds for their constituencies.