PESHAWAR, Oct 11: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday put on notice the secretary of local government department over a petition filed by the Tank district nazim challenging the freezing of the district government funds by the provincial government.

The petitioner, Riaz Khan Kundi, has requested the court to unfreeze the funds, stating that the freeze had been hindering development activities in the district.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, directed the secretary to clarify the situation on Oct 31.

Advocate Gohar Zaman Kundi appeared for the petitioner and contended that the government move was based on mala fide intention as Mr Kundi had defeated a nominee of the opposition leader in National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in the local government elections.

He argued that the act of the government was illegal and against the Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

The petitioner stated that there were 23 members of the district council, 16 of them union council nazims. He stated that nine of the nazims, belonging to the opponent group, sent an application to the local government department, accusing him of not releasing funds for their union councils.

The petitioner stated that the district government released development funds to all the councils and no discrimination was made with any of the area.

However, he stated, the provincial government on the basis of that complaint had frozen the funds of the district.

MINISTER: Minister of State for Political Affairs Amir Muqam has thanked the federal government for accepting the demand of the NWFP regarding the net hydel profit and granting Rs110 billion to the provincial government.

He was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday.

He asked the MMA government to seek cooperation of all political parties to resolve problems of the province.

He said political parties should work jointly to alleviate poverty and ensure development of backward areas in the province.