MULTAN, Jan 21: A gathering of Naib Nazimeen of Multan district and its four tehsils has expressed concern over the non-implementation of resolutions adopted by the local bodies.

District Naib Nazim Malik Amer Dogar presided over the meeting which was attended by Multan City Tehsil Nazim Dr Muzaffar Ahsan Qureshi, Multan Sadar Tehsil Naib Nazim Malik Abass, Shujabad Tehsil Naib Nazim Syed Wajid Ali Shah and Jalalpur Pirwala Tehsil Naib Nazim Syed Nasir Abbas Bokhari.

They observed that none of the resolutions passed by either district council or tehsil councils had been given serious consideration by the authorities concerned so far. They said the local councils were competent authorities and, therefore, their decisions should be taken seriously.

They protested against the policy of putting development funds at the disposal of MNAs and MPAs, saying this would be against the devolution plan which promised utilization of development funds only through the local bodies. They claimed that only the local bodies could better understand the development needs of their respective areas at the grassroots level. “Legislators should focus only on policy-making instead of meddling into the affairs of local councils.”

The meeting took serious note of frequent no-confidence moves against naib nazimeen, specially belonging to the union councils in Multan district, and demanded a ban on such moves till June 30 as it was in the case of nazimeen. The naib nazimeen observed that the premature no-trust moves would damage the system which was yet to take roots.

In the end, they urged the government to give perks like official vehicle, conveyance allowance, TA/DA and medical allowance as, at present, only the nazimeen were entitled to have these facilities. They said nazim and naib nazim had been elected as a panel and it was injustice to deprive the latter of the benefits being enjoyed by the former.