Swabi council warns govt against interference

Published December 31, 2001

SWABI, Dec 30: Opposition members in the Swabi tehsil council have warned the government against bringing in ready-made formulae to run the house, saying any such decision would not be acceptable to them.

Confusion marred the council proceedings on Saturday as all the treasury members left the house and the session was adjourned sine die.

Opposition councillors Raham Akbar, Haroon Rashid, Amir Nawab and Rashid, talking to journalists here on Sunday, said they would oppose imposed decisions to run the house.

They said in the formation of various committees the opposition members were totally ignored.

The committees were constituted at a hotel instead of the council floor, therefore, these were not acceptable to them, they remarked.

They alleged that a contract for the construction of a drainage system and various streets in the Dagi union council had been awarded five per cent above the previous district council estimate.

The total estimate of the construction work is Rs2,900,000 while the contractor gave the work to a sub-contractor on Rs200,000 profit, they said.

In the past, they said, most of the contracts had been given 8 to 10 per cent below the cost estimated by the district council, but after the election of the tehsil council a different approach was adopted, which, they feared, would result in misappropriation of funds.

They pledged that they would not receive any honoraria if the government failed to announce similar incentives for the women councillors, minority and peasant members.