RAWALPINDI: The mayor of Rawalpindi, Sardar Naseem Khan, on Thursday took charge of his office on the directive of the Supreme Court.

The mayor, who is also the PML-N metropolitan president, was initially given the cold shoulder by bureaucracy when he arrived in the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC).

However, after issuance of a notification restoring the mayor’s administrative powers, they met him and assured him of full support.

Accompanied by union council chairmen, including those belonging to the PTI and PPP, the mayor arrived in his office and took charge.

PML-N workers on the occasion chanted ‘Long live Nawaz Sharif’ and ‘Long live Shehbaz Sharif’ slogans.

Says development plans will be launched on proposals of UC chairmen

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab government had dissolved the local bodies constituted under the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2013 in May 2019.

The Supreme Court restored the local governments in Punjab in March in a short order and issued the detail judgment in July. But the Punjab government did not restore the local governments. Upon this, the apex court started contempt of court proceedings against the provincial government and the bureaucracy for creating hurdles in the restoration of the LG system.In response, on October 17, the provincial government restored the local governments.

RMC Chief Municipal Officer Ali Abbas Bukhari told Dawn that the government has issued a notification asking the local government employees to report to their head of departments. He said it also restored all the administrative powers of the elected representatives.

Meanwhile, Mayor Khan announced the resumption of the process of development in the garrison city.

He thanked the PPP and PTI union council chairmen for extending support to the PML-N to get the local government system restored in the province.

There are 40 union council chairmen belonging to PML-N while PPP and the PTI have two each.

Talking to media, the mayor said the local government system was restored on the directives of the Supreme Court.

He said as the first priority, an anti-dengue campaign will be launched in all the 46 union councils which would be supervised by the UC chairmen.

“Now the public representatives will carry out development work,” he said.

The mayor directed RMC officials to present him a report on the budget, staff and working of the RMC.

“We will complete all the unfinished work without wasting time,” he said.

He said in the absence of the local body representatives, development schemes were launched on the directives of the PTI members of the national and provincial assemblies.

“Development plans will be restructured and development schemes will be launched on the proposals of the UC chairmen. The schemes implemented so far by the PTI lawmakers will be declared illegal,” said the mayor.

In the afternoon, the government issued a new notification restoring the administrative powers of the mayor. After this, the chief municipal officer along with other officials met the mayor in his office.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2021