RAWALPINDI: Seeing that the local government will not be formed till October, the provincial government will be spending development funds meant for the town municipal administration through the local parliamentarians of the ruling PML-N.

Though the local government elections were held on December 5 last year, the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (MC) and the District Council headed by a mayor and district council chairman are yet to be established.

And since there is no mayor or chairman of the district council, the Rawal and Potohar town municipal administrations and the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) drafted the annual budgets too.

In absence of local government, PML-N leaders to decide on development schemes after consultations with local representatives

The Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) allocated Rs648 million for development works while the Potohar Municipal Administration set aside Rs412 million and the CDGR allocated Rs200 million for the same purpose.

However, these civic bodies have yet to start work on development projects amid confusion over how to spend the allocated money without consultations with public representatives as mandated by the law.

The provincial government therefore asked the local administration and the civic bodies to consult with local PML-N leaders on the matter, regardless of whether they secured a seat in the 2013 general elections.

A senior RTMA official told Dawn that the ruling party’s local leaders will identify schemes on which to spend the funds with help from the elected union council chairmen of their constituency and that therefore, the legal requirement of consulting with local representatives will also be fulfilled.

He said the local government will not be established during the next three months and that the RTMA has to start work on uplift projects after the monsoon season. Road construction will be started by the onset of winter.

The official said that residents of the city have made complaints regarding the condition of roads, streets and drains and if these are not repaired soon, they will launch protests against the civic bodies.

Even in the three constituencies of the provincial assembly and two of the National Assembly in which members of other parties won, the uplift schemes will be conducted in consultation with PML-N leaders.

When asked, RTMA Finance Officer Shahzad Gondal said the civic body has taken on Rs150 million worth of uplift schemes which had been left over from the last fiscal year.

He said development work will be starting soon, after the provincial government gives a go ahead.

Criticising the move, PTI MPA Arif Abbasi said the people had elected PTI leaders to represent them in the provincial and national assemblies and that the provincial government was directing the civic bodies to not listen to elected representatives.

He said that he had requested for the streets, roads, drains and street lights in his constituency to be improved and that his requests had not been adhered to.

On the other hand, former Rawal Town Nazim Sheikh Rashid Shafique told Dawn that the local government will not be formed this year as the PML-N wanted to keep its hold on financial matters.

He said it was strange that the PML-N leaders who were defeated by Sheikh Rashid and Imran Khan will be running the affairs of the district and that no one is questioning the matter either.

PML-N Metropolitan President Sardar Naseem maintained that the local government will be formed after October and that development work needs to start before that.

He said the mechanism devised by the provincial government was not illegal and was routine for eight years now.

About the formation of the local government, he said the matter was pending in the courts and that a decision was likely to be given after October.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2016