RAWALPINDI, Aug 31: The district council’s monitoring committees and the panel of presiding officers have been dissolved on the completion of their tenure, District Naib Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas informed the council on Saturday.

He said the council secretariat would form new committees and present them before the council for approval during the next session.

The monitoring committees oversee the performance of the district government’s subordinate departments and seek solutions to the problems hampering their daily functioning.

District council member Col Abbass Malik (retired) drew the council’s attention towards the poor performance of the monitoring committees during the past one year. He said the council should be informed about the performance of these bodies.

Earlier, another member, Chaudhry Abdul Ghaffar, said the monitoring committees and the panel of presiding officers of the council had completed their tenure. He said it was now mandatory, according to the rules, to appoint new committees so that their working was not affected.

Mian Imran, the opposition leader, speaking on a point of order, criticized, what he termed, the government’s double- standard policy towards former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He claimed that she was being victimized for being a popular leader. He said the impact of this anti-Benazir campaign would have wider implications than those being perceived generally.

He said the national integrity and solidarity were being compromised by following different standards for the candidates from Punjab and Sindh, as it might give rise to anti-federation feelings.

Mr Ikhlas ruled that the matter could not be discussed at this forum as it was beyond the jurisdiction of the council and was subjudice as well.

Col Abbass criticized the district government for not having been unable to initiate the development works. Mr Ikhlas, while responding to his objection, said the funds were released as late as May, which delayed the start of development projects. He said matters were being streamlined to compensate for the lost time.

Col Abbass also objected to Mr Ikhlas’s running his son’s election campaign. Another member said no member, as per the local government ordinance, was allowed to take part in the political activities, but everyone in the council was committed to one party or the other.

Mr Ikhlas, however, denied running the campaign for his son. The house was informed that seven of its members had resigned from their posts to take part in the elections. The council members, who have tendered their resignations, are Ghulam Murtaza Satti, Raja Hameed, Tariq Kiani, Shaukat Aziz Bhatti, Ch Kamran Aslam, Syed Riaz Hussain Shah and Iftikhar Warsi. Sarkar Abbass, elected to special seats for women, is also contesting the elections as an independent candidate from PP-12. However, she has not resigned from her post as the law requires only Nazim to tender resignation in case of contesting elections.

The members protested against the alleged misbehaviour of police with one of the women members. Saima Wadood, speaking before the council, alleged that SP CIA Raja Mumtaz had been pressurizing her to vacate the computer laboratory in Girls Secondary School, Tench Bhatta, that had been officially allotted to her to run the afternoon classes.

The matter was referred to the district Nazim, Raja Tariq Kiani.