PESHAWAR
Local Government Representatives Action Committee on Thursday asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to fulfil the demands of elected local government representatives or they would stage protests and sit-ins outside the residence of PTI’s chairman Imran Khan in Zaman Park in Lahore on January 5.
Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, local government representatives including city Mardan mayor Himayatullah Mayar, Tehsil Naurang mayor Azizullah Khan, Hangu tehsil chairman Amir Ghani and others criticized the provincial government for applying delaying tactics in releasing promised funds.
They said that the KP government has crippled the powers of elected representatives and delegated all powers to Deputy Commissioners in tehsils and districts, adding that government should give them their constitutional and legal rights immediately, otherwise they would stage a sit-in in Lahore outside the PTI chairman Imran Khan residence.
Himayatullah Mayar shared that the Action Committee has decided to observe 19 October as a black day.
He said that one year of local government polls has passed without any release of funds or offices in respectives tehsils.
The provincial government has turned its deaf towards the problems and difficulties being faced by LG representatives and demanded of the government to resolve them on priority basis. Members of the Action Committee including Farhad Khan, Saeed Bacha, Faisal Khan, Nasira Ebadat and Siraj-u-Din also present on the occasion.
They added that the provincial government had usurped the rights of the local governments enshrined in Article 37 and 140 of the Constitution.
The government had promised to provide facilities to the people at doorstep but it deprived the local government of financial powers, which had unmasked its intention, they added and said that the PTI government after suffering a humiliating defeat in the local government election did not honour its promise.
