LAHORE, Dec 28: Seven district nazims have again challenged the Punjab chief minister to prove all the allegations levelled against them in a ‘public court’ at the Lahore Press Club on Jan 15.

In a statement issued after a meeting on Sunday, the district nazims reacted strongly to the allegations like misappropriation, embezzlement and fraud levelled in a Punjab government advertisement that appeared in national dailies.

Signed by Rana Zahid Tauseef, Ahmad Yar Hiraj, Abdul Rahman Kanju, Faisal Mukhtar, Rao Naseem Hashim, Sardar Ghulam Abbass and Raja Javaid Ikhlas, the statement said all the allegations had been based on the preliminary objections raised during audit process.

“Such allegations have no legal status. It is condemnable that the provincial government has spent million of rupees to defame the nazims and the auditor-general should take notice of this irregularity. Nazims reserve the right to initiate legal proceedings (against the government),” added the statement.

A participant on the meeting later told Dawn that two dozen or so nazims attended the meeting. “The present government is bent upon defaming the nazims and the local government system because it was introduced during the regime of General Pervez Musharraf. We have been demanding implementation of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance in letter and spirit. We want rule and supremacy of law,” added the nazim, who wished not to be named.

Urging the government to adopt a clear-cut policy, he said there had been no ambiguity in the Constitution regarding the role of local governments. “But, the district and tehsil nazims were not being allowed to work by the district coordination officers (DCOs) and the tehsil municipal officers.

Regretting that democratic forces were out to destabilise and weaken the local government system introduced by a “non-democratic” set up, he said that the government should not weaken the local government system if it could not strengthen it.

Meanwhile, Lahore District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood has said the audit process of the city district government has yet to be completed and the Rs490 million embezzlement charges are nothing but a conspiracy to mislead the masses.

“The charges are contrary to the ground realities and against the legal procedure. We have been safeguarding the public exchequer honestly,” said Amer in a statement issued on Sunday.

He said that some very unreasonable objections had been added to the preliminary audit report. One such objection stated that the record of Rs162 million utilised under the citizen community boards (CCBs) had not been handed over to the audit team.

“Audit of the money spent by the CCBs is their responsibility and the process is under way at the offices of the boards concerned. How can an audit team detect embezzlement in the accounts or record that are not presented before it?” he added. Another such objection claimed embezzlement of Rs124 million. In fact, 31 kanals of land adjacent to Kot Khwaja Saeed Hospital had been under the occupation of “land grabbers” and the estimated cost of the land had been shown as embezzlement. The discrepancy in the provincial and district accounts to the tune of Rs77 million had also been labelled as embezzlement.

“Under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and Accounts Rules, 2008, the DCO is the principal accounting officer and is responsible to maintain financial discipline in his respective district. The EDO concerned is authorised to spend the money under the supervision of the respective DCO. Nazims are the elected representatives of the masses and embezzlement charges are baseless and an insult to the public mandate,” he added.

“Levelling allegations on the basis of audit objections raised at preliminary stage is in violation of rules and shows ignorance of the people behind it. Under the Accounts Rules, 2008, the report containing preliminary objections has yet to be presented before the district accounts committee that will review it and settle certain paras.”

“The regional director of audit has, with the approval of the director-general of district governments (Northern Punjab), sent a letter No RDA/Distt. Gov/FDAC/CD-257 to the city district government of Lahore on Dec 20, directing it to review the objections in the district accounts committee meeting,” maintained Mian Amer. — Staff Reporter