RCB power tussle: Body to iron out differences between admin, councillors

Three-member committee to formulate code of conduct.

RAWALPINDI: A body has been formed to end differences between the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) officials and the elected members over running the affairs of the civic agency.

Twelve elected members attended the board’s meeting on Friday following assurances from two parliamentarians of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party MNA Malik Abrar Ahmed and Senator Chaudhry Tanveer Ahmed that the board administration would cooperate with the elected representatives in managing the board affairs.

In the meeting, RCB President Brigadier Syed Hassan Raza formed a three-member conduct committee to prepare a code of conduct both for RCB officials and the elected representatives.

The committee is comprised of RCB Additional Executive Officer Rana Rameez Shafqat, Lt-Colonel Iqbal Ahmed, a nominated member and Malik Muhammad Munir an elected member of the board.

Informed sources in the board told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity on Monday that the committee was formed to prepare a code of conduct after differences cropped up between the elected representatives and the administration.

The sources said that the committee would formulate a code of conduct after taking input from the administration and elected members that would be binding on all elected and nominated members.

A councillor seeking anonymity said that the elected representatives had been feeling themselves helpless since they were elected in April 2015. He said that the elected representatives had been having no say in administrative affairs of the board.

He said that residence of cantonment areas had been bringing their problems to their elected representatives. The public representatives, however, had not been able to address the problems due to the non-cooperative behaviour of the administration.

The councillor noted that the issue became serious when two weeks ago RCB Vice-President Raja Jahandad announced a boycott of the board meetings.

The boycott was announced after the VP had an exchange of hot words with a senior RCB official during the meeting of a committee on tax assessment.

When RCB spokesperson Qaisar Mahmood was contacted time and again for the official version he was not immediately available for the comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2016.