MUZAFFARGARH, Jan 24: Peace committees set up at district and division levels have become ceremonial bodies wherein lengthy sermons on peace and harmony are echoed and never-to-be-implemented resolutions are passed.

The ineffectiveness of such bodies can be gauged from the fact that the meeting of the Dera Ghazi Khan Divisional Peace Committee was convened on Wednesday, Muharram 4, four days after the onset of the first Islamic calendar month. The committee was to discuss security arrangement and measures for creating harmony among different sects in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Layyah districts. But the meeting witnessed rumpus when some members complained that they had not got a chance to speak in the meeting.

Sources said the members protested against the government for making peace committees mere a puppet. They said that the divisional committee should have met earlier.

Sources said many members walked out of the meeting in protest at the late convening of the meeting. They said the meeting should have been called two weeks before the onset of Muharram.

The meeting was presided over by Dera Ghazi Khan District Nazim Sardar Maqsood Leghari and attended by district coordination officers, district police officers and members of district peace committees from the four districts.

Muzaffargarh District Peace Committee Member Syed Gulzar Naqvi said the divisional peace committee had been dominated by the “favourites” of the government. He said that he had also protested against the behaviour of the convenor of the meeting.

Another member from Muzaffargarh requesting anonymity told Dawn that many resolutions passed by the Muzaffargarh district peace committee had not been implemented. He said the committee had recommended that load shedding should be stopped during Muharram as it increased the risk of terrorism. But power outage interrupted majalis and other gatherings held to mourn the tragedy of Karbala.

He said the organisers of majalis and caretakers of many imambargahs had to arrange electric power generators or emergency lights.

The caretaker of Imambargah Babur Raza in Gujrat said that he had been arranging Ashra-e-Muharram for the last 20 years and every time policemen were sent there for security. This year, however, the department had not sent any official there. He said police had asked him to arrange private security guards, which according to him, were not reliable. When contacted, Mahmoodkot Police Station SHO Sadiq Rind said that police had changed its security plan, under which no policeman could be sent to the Gujrat imambargah.