MULTAN - As the treasury members of District Council Multan tabled a condemnation resolution against disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif here on Wednesday, the opposition members stood out against the move but to no avail.
The District Council approved the resolution with a big majority in its Wednesday session tabled by UC Chairman AD Khera, who said that the masses still stood with Nawaz Sharif and they would make him prime minister for the record fourth term.
The house presented the view of a fish market due to the roof—shattering sloganeering from both the treasury and opposition sides. As the opposition benches raised the slogan “Go Nawaz Go” the treasury side retaliated with “Ro Imran Ro” and the sloganeering literally paralysed the proceedings for a brief period. A member from government side declared Imran Khan a proclaimed offender besides taunting PPPP, saying Ayan Ali-like people had become Sadiq o Ameen in today’s world.
The opposition members blamed that the house was being run undemocratically. “We were not given the copies of the details of previous session of the house. They have provided us with these copies just five minutes before the beginning of this session,” claimed Bashirur Rehman, an opposition member.
Opposition member Rao Abdul Qayum said that the performance of District Council was no more than zero as a result of which Multan ranked last in entire Punjab.
He said that millions of rupees were spoiled on banners and panaflex on Independence Day but this publicity made no difference. “This money was spent without consultation of members of District Council. Instead of spoiling these funds on banners, the district council should have held functions in schools and colleges to create awareness among students,” he added. He demanded a strict check on the performance of officers of District Council and suggested a bi-monthly performance review.
Another UC Chairman Dr. Khalid Khokhar pointed out that many union councils were without offices. He demanded funds for the construction of union council offices. He said that the funds were not being distributed on equality basis, blaming that he was given Rs9 lac funds which were later on withdrawn by the District Council. He maintained that millions out of non-development funds were blown up on functions held in connection with Independence. He said that Rs240 million was allocated under non-development head and this amount was being spoiled on useless activities.
District Council member Ibrahim Madni asked the house to allow him to spend funds up to Rs100,000 on disposal of animal remains on Eid. The convenor of the house Malik Sarfaraz khor said that the government had already issued permission for spending funds on sanitation.
Dr Hameeda khanam said that each member of the house should be given chance to speak. She drew the attention of the house towards poor sanitation conditions in Multan. Chaudhry Khalil ur Rehman suggested that the UC Chairmen should be given the task to get vacated state lands under illegal occupation. He demanded the house to make all committees active.
Earlier, the house approved 10 resolutions including giving Solid Waste Management Company the sanitation responsibility of entire district, sending a proposal to secretary excise for alleviating property tax from rural and undeveloped areas, removal of fee from cable network, toll tax and excavation, imposition of construction plan fee on under construction building, imposition of poultry farm fee, recovery of professional tax and imposition of fee on businesses.