LAHORE Nazims will hold a convention at Nasser Bagh on March 7 to protect the local government system, said Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) central leader Pervaiz Elahi.

After a meeting of district and tehsil nazims here on Monday, Mr Elahi said the PML-N government in Punjab was conspiring against the system, but his party would not let it demolish the third tier of governance.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was treating public institutions as his personal estate and humiliating political opponents, he said. Mr Sharif turned against the local governments after district nazims refused to obey his illegal orders, he claimed, adding that district nazims had denied diverting development funds to parliamentarians from the N-League.

The provincial government withheld development funds of local councils which had brought development projects at a halt in districts, tehsils and union councils.

The former chief minister alleged there was a complete mismanagement in the province and the chief secretary was interfering in the works of tehsil/town governments along with his bevy of administrative secretaries.

He claimed that 90 per cent of the district and tehsil nazims had attended the Monday meeting and planned to hold a convention at Nasser Bagh in an effort to protect the system.

The provincial government had not initiated a single development project in its first year and the chief minister had been busy inscribing his name on inaugural plaques of different projects started by the previous (his government) regime.

He said the provincial government should follow rules and procedures and if they had any complaint against district governments, they should go to the courts instead of creating administrative hurdles.

He praised the governor for supporting district nazims.

Mr Elahi also denied any differences with PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Husain on the issue of alliance with the PML-N.