MULTAN, Aug 4: The Lahore High Court has held in abeyance all the budgetary allocations made or to be made in the fiscal statement of Muzaffargarh district for the year 2006-7.
Justice Khalid Alvi of the LHC’s Multan bench passed the orders on a petition filed by Muzaffargarh district nazim Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi against the alleged non-cooperation of the district bureaucracy in implementing the budget the district council had approved in its session held on July 13 last.
The petitioner had expressed apprehensions that the district bureaucracy was planning to prepare a parallel budget to undo the budget statement approved by elected representatives of the local government.
The court directed the Muzaffargarh’s EDO (finance and planning) and DO (planning and budget) to submit a report within a fortnight as to why the budget was not being implemented? The court also directed officials to release funds for day-to-day working of the district government.
PPP stalwart Qayyum Jatoi had resigned from the National Assembly to become district nazim last year. He was one of the four district nazims who had won elections despite having known affiliation with opposition parties. The three others belonged to Faisalabad, Pakpattan and Kasur districts.
Nazims of Faisalabad and Pakpattan, however, could not withstand the government pressure and they soon took the oath of allegiance on the hands of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.
But, district government heads of Muzaffargarh and Kasur have yet not broken away from the ranks of their parties — PPP and PML-N, respectively, against all odds.
On July 13, doors of the Muzaffargarh district council hall were closed for members and, consequently, the budget session was to be held on a nearby road. Qayyum Jatoi and his comrades claimed that the budget was approved with a clear-cut majority.
Qayyum Jatoi said that although he belonged to the PPP, he had tried his utmost to develop working relationship with the provincial government but to no avail.
He said Sardar Nasrullah Dreshak, the chief whip of the ruling PML in the NA, had mediated between him and the provincial government. Consequently, he said that he had given a walkover to ruling party’s candidate Sardar Ashiq Gopang for the by-election held against the NA seat vacated by him.
Mr Jatoi said he had met the chief minister thrice to end the stalemate for the sake of the people of his district who were suffering due to seizure of development funds, but to no avail.
He said that provincial authorities wanted him to join the ruling party, an act which he would not do irrespective of the cost he had to pay. He said he had longstanding and time-tested affiliation with the PPP, which he did not want to compromise on for some small gains.
The PPP leader said the present government’s slogan of good governance and devolution had become a mockery of the concept of democracy, the very spirit of the local government system, because the ‘Chaudhris of Gujrat’ wanted to paint the political scene of the whole province the way they wanted it to be.
“The henchmen of devolution plan creators are sowing the seed of their failure,” he said.