SIALKOT, Nov 18: Even after eight days of its elevation as tehsil, Sambrial is awaiting staff and other infrastructure facilities.

Talking to Dawn, the officials concerned confirmed that neither the administrative staff nor other infrastructure facilities have been provided by the provincial government. "At present, there is chaos for officials of all government departments and people of the town," they said.

The Punjab government granted the tehsil status to Sambrial on Nov 12 last while the Revenue department had also re-issued a formal notification to the effect. It is the fourth tehsil of the Sialkot district, besides Sialkot, Daska, and Pasrur.

The Sambrial tehsil would consist of 160 villages with 17 union councils and only two police stations - Sambrial and Begowala.

Earlier, the Punjab government had given the tehsil status to Sambrial in August, 2004, but cancelled the notification later.

During his visit to Sambrial on Dec 18, 2003, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had announced to give it a tehsil status from July 1, 2004. Now, the Sialkot Dry Port, the under-construction Sialkot International Airport, and the Sialkot Export Processing Zone would fall in the limits of Sambrial tehsil instead of Daska.

Meanwhile, the political and business circles have once again started criticizing the provincial government's decision of giving tehsil status to Sambrial. They alleged that Sambrial had been made a tehsil purely on political grounds as, according to them, there was no need of a new tehsil in the Sialkot district.

Moreover, all the rural areas of Daska tehsil, including villages of Kandan Sayyan, Bholla Moosa, Kotli Lala, Kaanbanwala, Kotli Bawariyan, Phaangat and Sidhaanwala, have been included in the Sambrial tehsil.

Similarly, Sialkot tehsils' various rural areas, including Roras, have also been attached with the Sambrial tehsil.

The people have urged the Punjab chief minister to review the decision in the larger public interest.

An official requesting anonymity said the Punjab government had still not issued proper programme to the revenue department and district government for providing infrastructure and administrative staff for the newly-created Sambrial tehsil.

He claimed that around Rs2 billion required for the provision of complete tehsil infrastructure for Sambrial had yet not been released by the provincial government. Besides, he said, that a period of at least three years would be needed for this purpose.

The people of Sambrial have also become "rolling stones' between Sambrial, Daska, and Sialkot because Sialkot and Daska based officials are not entertaining them at all. They are simply asked to go back to their own tehsil for the solution to their problems.

When contacted, the mastermind behind this move, Azeem Noori Ghuman, who is also an MPA and Punjab Public Accounts Committee chairman, said that giving tehsil status to Sambrial was a very "wise decision' by the Punjab chief minister.

Meanwhile, addressing a public gathering at Sambrial, Punjab ACE director-general Brig Muhammad Aslam Ghuman (retired) said the tehsil status to Sambrial was a gift to the people of Sambrial. However, all the legislators belonging to the Sialkot district avoided giving any comment on this hot issue.

Daska Tehsil Nazim Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad Cheema said that giving tehsil status to Sambrial was a great injustice to the people of Daska. He claimed that the Daska Tehsil Municipal Administration had always allocated maximum development funds for Sambrial.