TOBA TEK SINGH, July 1: An evidence of tussle between District Nazim Chaudhry Abdul Sattar and District Coordination Officer Nawazish Ali came to the fore on Sunday when both criticised each other.
In a press statement, the DCO claimed that the objections raised against him during Saturday’s district council meeting by the ruling-bench members regarding the issuance of funds to select people for various development schemes were baseless.
“What the fact is that those district council members who belong to the groups of MNA Chaudhry Amjad Warraich, MPA Chaudhry Bilal Asghar Warraich and MPA Javed Akram were not given development grant by the district nazim due to differences and they had sent complaints to Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on whose directions the funds were released to them.”
He said a meeting to the effect was also held in Lahore at the office of the provincial local government secretary where Chaudhry Sattar was also present. It was decided that about two dozen district council members, who were ignored in the past, would be released funds for the schemes of their respective constituencies and the decision was implemented.
Since the decision’s approval from the house was the task of both district nazim and naib nazim, the allegation that he (the DCO) had shown partiality in the allocation of funds had no legs to stand on.
The district nazim, on the other hand, told Dawn that he was in favour of granting funds to all the members without discrimination. Even the item of endorsement of the resolution regarding the schemes was included in the agenda without his prior approval.
A dispute between the ruling and opposition groups over an item included in the agenda (of previous meeting), which was not approved by the house during the last meeting, had created an uproar in the house and the district nazim group’s members staged a walkout and torn the copies of the agenda.
Ruling group union council nazim Mulazim Abbas Gadhi had objected that the resolution NO 41 had been included in the last meeting minutes while it was never discussed then. He also blamed that the district naib nazim got approved development schemes worth Rs24 million from the DCO without consent of the house which was illegal. The house couldn’t, therefore, approve the amount, he argued.
District naib nazim Chaudhry Khalid Sardar stated that as the DCO had already released the funds for the schemes, the house should approve it now but a majority of the members refused to do so.
Later about 30 members who belonged to former district nazim Chaudhry Muhammad Ashfaq’s group remained in the house and they continued the meeting with naib nazim in the chair. They approved the said section of the agenda.
Speaking at a press conference at the district council rest house, ruling group’s Haji Abdul Saeed, Mian Naseer Ahmad and Rana Zafar Iqbal claimed that the resolution passed by 30 members was illegal as presence of at least 59 members was mandatory for the purpose. They claimed that 65 members of the house had staged boycott.
The ruling group members also took out a procession from the district council complex to the DCO office where they raised slogans against illegal conduct of meeting by the district naib nazim.