Newly elected members of different tiers of the local government take oath at District Council Hall in the city. PHOTO: PPI
Much like the polling process itself, the oath-taking ceremonies to swear in local government representatives in some parts of K-P were a picture of mismanagement and chaos.
Scuffles broke out in Shangla, while Swat’s deputy commissioner was conspicuous by his absence as he failed to turn up to administer the oaths. In Tank, an elected councilor of PTI, who was also a candidate for a district naib nazim seat, was assaulted, sparking a protest from his party.
However, over 45,000 elected representatives who were chosen by the people to represent them, took oath of their respective offices across the province.
The newly-elected members of Peshawar district, towns, villages and neighborhood councils took oath at the opening session on Saturday.
In Peshawar, 86 local government councillors from PTI, 14 from ANP, seven from JI, eight from PPP and three independents took oath. The oath was administered by Additional Deputy Commissioner Osama Ahmad Warraich. He said elections for district and town nazims would be held at 2pm on Sunday (today).
A total of 4,700 elected members, including 135 district and 136 town councillors took oath at the District Council Hall and Government High Higher Secondary Hasnan Shaheed School. At the same time, village and neighbourhood councillors took oath at the District Administration office.
Before the session, Peshawar DC Riaz Mehsud congratulated the new elected members and said credit goes to the K-P government for devolving powers. He said the local government would have the authority to spend 30% of the Annual Development Programme funds.
Also, a total of 45 district councillors of Upper Dir took oath in Dir Khas on Saturday, including 16 elected on reserved seats. The tehsil councillors of Dir Khas, Barawal, Kalkot and Wari also took oath. JI emerged as the strongest party as its members took 22 of the 32 district seats and managed to gain a majority.
As many as 84 district councillors for Swabi took oath at the district headquarters as did members of neighbourhood, village and tehsil councils.
In Mardan, 110 members of a 112-strong house took oath at Pakhtunkhwa House.
In Chitral, 1,051 local government members took oath of their office. The members were confronted with several issues due to poor arrangements at the Chitral District Council Hall.
In Charsadda, 72 councillors of the 75-member district council took oath of their new responsibilities at the TMA Hall. The three members who failed to appear were absent for some unknown reasons.
Meanwhile, 698 local government representatives in Hangu were administered their oath by the district returning officer.
In Shangla, a scuffle broke out among PML-N and ANP workers immediately after the conclusion of the oath-taking ceremony at the DC’s office on Saturday.
The 44 members of the Shangla district council took oath as did elected representatives on the tehsil, neighbourhood and village level. The scuffle broke out when ANP workers spotted JUI-F district councillor Gul Muhammad seated in a PML-N vehicle. An exchange of words ultimately led to the brawl and weapons were displayed, while the two groups thrashed each other. No weapons were fired during the brawl which lasted an hour.
Separately, around 101 district and tehsil councilors took oath in Wadudia Hall, Saidu Sharif in Swat district on Saturday. Due to the absence of Deputy Commissioner Swat Mehmood Aslam Wazir, the oath-taking ceremony was chaired by Babozai tehsil Additional Assistant Commissioner Hamid Khan. However, the ceremony grew chaotic as an elected councillor demanded the presence of the deputy commissioner.
In Bannu, only the members of the village and tehsil councils took oath. However, their counterparts on the district level could not do the same due to an order of the Islamabad High Court.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2015.
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