QUETTA, Aug 10: Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen of various districts in Balochistan alleged on Saturday that the provincial government and bureaucracy were trying to sabotage the local government system.

Speaking at a press conference, Mohammad Rahim Kakar, Mir Khalid Magsi, Dr Ejaz Gohar, Mohammad Arif Mohammad Hasni, Mir Hair Byiar, Mula Bukhsh Dashti, Abdul Rahman Zahri and others said the Nazimeen were not fully empowered under the devolution plan.

“Head of the provincial bureaucracy is even not ready to meet Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen,” they said.

They said that government had given heavy responsibilities to the Nazimeen but had not extended powers accordingly.

“The deputy commissioners had enjoyed lot of powers but the Nazimeen were deprived of those powers while they were also responsible for maintaining law and order,” they said.

The Nazimeen said that despite strict orders of President Gen Pervez Musharraf the provincial bureaucracy was not cooperating with them and not implementing the orders and decisions of the elected representatives.

“Senior bureaucrats, including district coordination officials were even not ready to reply to official letters,” Nazimeen of different districts remarked.

They alleged that the bureaucracy wanted the new system to fail. “They are trying to promote negative politics in the province to create problems for the elected representatives,” they said.

They said the provincial secretaries and heads of the departments were not consulting the district Nazimeen while preparing and implementing development schemes for their areas.

The development schemes pointed out by the elected representatives were not included in the annual budget and were ignored in the development plan, they said.

They said they were not given financial powers and the government had allowed them to use only 300 litters petrol while they were covering thousands of miles of areas. They also could not make more than 1,000 local calls monthly.

They said many departments were not handed over to the elected representatives under the devolution plan.

However, they announced that they would not continue struggle for the success of the system.

They demanded that President Musharraf, Balochistan Governor Amirul Mulk Mengal and Corps Commander Lt-Gen Abdul Quader Baloch should take steps for resolving the problems being faced by the Nazimeen.

They also demanded action against the officials who they said were involved in conspiracy against the local bodies system.