MANSEHRA: Chairmen of the village and neighbourhood councils here on Thursday announced that they would stage a protest sit-in outside the chief minister’s house in Peshawar next month to demand funds for local governments.

“Half of our four-year term has passed but we are still without development funds and powers mentioned in the Local Governments Act, 2011,” president of the district chapter of the Provincial Action Committee Malik Mumtaz told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting was attended by chairmen of over two dozen villages and neighbourhood councils from across the district.

They decided to set the August 27 deadline for the government to release development funds and honour its commitments towards them and warned if the demands weren’t met, they would stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar on Sept 4.

“Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had promised to release money for our development funds, honorarium, utility bills and other expenses six months ago, but the promise is still unfulfilled,” Mr Mumtaz said.

Complain about denial of powers

On the occasion, general secretary of the Basharat Ali Swati said that members of the district committee also attended the meeting of their provincial chapter where it was decided that local governments’ representatives from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would show up in the sit-in Peshawar.

“If the provincial government doesn’t honour its commitments, we will also gather outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to lodge a protest with detained chief of the ruling PTI Imran Khan,” he said.

Mr Swati said the government wanted to scrap LG system on the financial ground but they would never bow down to such pressures and tactics.

“We will also move the court of law along with our street protests,” he said.

FREE ELECTRICITY: Local body members, traders and lawyers in Balakot here on Thursday demanded free electric supply from two hydropower units set up in their tehsil on the Kunhar River.

“It is our fundamental right to enjoy free of cost electricity from two hydropower projects as one has started power production and theother is nearing completion on our soil,” former tehsil nazim Junaid Ali Qasim told a meeting in Balakot.

The meeting unanimously decided to hold a series of protest demonstrations to compel the government to accept their demands.

He said that the government had given different financial packages, allocated land for the residential colonies and provided free-of-cost electricity supply to residents of Upper Kohistan from the Dasu hydropower project and they also expected all such facilities. “We also deserve to enjoy all those facilities and financial packages in Balakot tehsil,” Mr Qasim said.

Anwar Lala, president of the traders’ body, said traders would launch street agitation for their rights if the government didn’t supply them electricity free of cost.

Mian Ashraf complained that survivors of the Oct 2005 earthquake were still facing rehabilitation and reconstruction issues.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024