JHANG, July 18: People from different walks of life criticized on Friday the decision to make Ahmadpur Sial town a tehsil on the pressure of a sitting MPA.
Muzaffar Ali Khan Sial, who had been elected MPA from the constituency thrice, described the decision as a politically motivated move by the government to please the sitting MPA who hailed from the town “which is situated in a remote corner of the proposed tehsil.”
As compared to Ahmadpur Sial, he said, Garh Maharaja, a bigger Town than Ahmadpur Sial and situated in the centre of the area, would have been a more logical choice, as the headquarters of the new tehsil.
Former MPA Zulfiqar Ali Khan, while praising the goverment decision to create a new tehsil on the western or right bank of river Chenab, said it had accepted a longstanding demand of the people of the area who had to travel more than one hundred kilometres to reach the tehsil headquarters, Shorkot. He, however, expressed his reservations about the choice of new tehsil headquarters, situated on a remote edge of the district in the opposite direction close to the border of Muzaffargarh district.
Ahmadpur Sial town till recently was a part of Garh Maharaja police station and still a qanongo circle of Garh Maharaja sub-tehsil. On the contrary, Garh Maharaja is a much larger town and situated in the centre of the new tehsil. Besides, it already enjoys the status of sub-tehsil, with the office of a naib tehsildar. In the past, Garh Maharaja used to have the court of a resident magistrate before the introduction of new system of district government. It also has a branch of Agriculture Development Bank, the only in the area, a grid station and FESCO sub-divisional offices. It is also close to the district headquarters, Jhang.
Several union council Nazims and former members of Jhang district council have also voiced their concern at ignoring a historical and central place like Garh Maharaja on political grounds.
SAFETY COMMISSION: The district public safety commission finally started functioning after its formal inauguration by the DIG police on Thursday here.
Faisalabad range DIG Altaf Qamar said on the occasion the commission was set up to provide a check and balance system. Though the institution had been set up for the accountability of police, but its prime duty was to work for the redressal of people’s grievances.