Consensus over budget: District nazim woos opposition parties

Says decision taken in best interest of Mansehra residents.

MANSEHRA:

The Mansehra district nazim and his supporters from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz are making efforts to woo opposition parties to ensure consensus in the district budget.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, district nazim Sardar Said Ghulam said efforts are under way to bring opposition parties on the same page.

“We are trying to persuade opposition parties to reach a consensus on the budget,” he said, “Going solo will harm the interest of both sides.”

According to Ghulam, he wants to take opposition parties on board for the best interest of the residents of Mansehra. “There has already been a delay in transferring funds to the district’s account owing to mala fide intent,” he said. “This has caused many people to suffer. At this stage, a confrontation between the treasury and opposition benches will serve no purpose.”



The district nazim said a committee, led by Advocate Munir Lughmani, has been tasked to conduct negotiations.

“The committee will convince Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to lend support to reach a consensus over the budget,” he said. “It will apprise them about the benefits and losses of a confrontation.” He added, “The date of the budget session will be decided within next couple of days.”

Amid delays

Mansehra is the only district of Hazara where the district assembly has yet to present or approve the budget for 2015-16. The delay is partially a result of delays by the deputy commissioner in finalising budget preparation.

Backdrop

PML-N nominee Sardar Said Ghulam and Qaumi Watan Party candidate Murtaza Tanoli had won the offices of district nazim and naib nazim, respectively, on August 30. They won by five votes. Their rivals, PTI’s Shafat Ali Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Malik Farooq bagged 40 votes.

At the time, Said and Tanoli had the support of PTI’s forward bloc, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Jamaat-e-Islami and QWP. However, five members of the PTI forward bloc lost their seats. Ahmed Shehryar Khan, son of former JUI-F MNA Laiq Muhammad Khan, had resigned before he could be removed. The other four—two minority members and two women on reserved seats—were de-seated by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Following these developments, opposition sides have accelerated efforts against each other.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th,  2015.