No funds, no work: LG offices wear deserted look in Rawapindi

Elected officials say they have nothing left to do in the office following the freeze on development work

RAWALPINDI: A trip to the office of your local union council chairman, or even to the office of the Rawalpindi mayor has turned into a game of roulette. It will be pure luck if you find any of these officials in their office no matter how many times you visit.

“The boss is not in right now, come back later,” is a phrase that is heard so often that it seems it has also been set as the ringing tone of the lower officials who do show up at these offices.

Most of the elected local government officials have stopped attending their offices in the garrison city for one reason or the other.

Moreover, the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) has not convened a meeting for months now to discuss issues of the city and to find a solution for them.

With the UC chairmen, vice chairman not visiting the offices regularly, the staff in some of these has taken a cue from their bosses and have found places other than the UC offices to spend their time. As a result, some local government offices appear to be completely abandoned.

In others, there are just a few municipal officers and a couple of other officials milling about passing the time.

If you go there with a problem, the staff present nonchalantly says “The boss is not in right now, come back later.” If pressed, no definition can be had for what day or date does ‘later’ signify.

It was further suggested that some elected representatives visit their offices early in the morning, mark their attendance and then leave by claiming that they are going out in the field.

A few local government representatives were traced and asked why they do not sit in their offices and solve the issues of the public, as is their responsibility, they said that there is nothing left for them to do.

The work we want to do is not getting done, so what will we do by visiting our offices, the local government representatives said as they pointed to the freeze imposed by the new Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on the construction of any kind of development scheme in the city, even those funded by the RMC’s own resources.

They added that due to the freeze, they have nothing to tell their constituents why no work was being done in the city, noting that they had been rendered virtually powerless.

Despite repeated attempts, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem could not be contacted.

Amid freeze, WB-funded project resumes

Even as a development freeze imposed by the Punjab government continues in the city, a programme funded by the World Bank has been resumed by the provincial government.

Around Rs270 million under the programme, which would see the construction of a new building for the municipal library, upgrading the slaughterhouse, upgrading the general bus stand at Pir Wadhai and improving the streets and sewerage system.

Work on the project was halted after funds earmarked for the project lapsed and were withdrawn by the government. With the contractors unpaid, it brought work on the projects to a halt.

On the other hand, projects worth Rs5 million for the UC chairman, and projects worth Rs2.5 million for each vice chairman remain frozen.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2018.