Pindi’s local govt representatives hint at moving SC

RMC members want to become party to case filed by Lahore Mayor Col (retd) Mubashir

RAWALPINDI: With a bar on issuing tenders for development projects still in vogue, local government representatives of Punjab have devised a plan to circumvent that ban by challenging it in the Supreme Court.

Union Council chairmen and mayor from Rawalpindi have now petitioned the Supreme Court to become a party in the case.

Last year, after the election of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Punjab, grants for all local governments in the province had been blocked. Moreover, the chief engineer of the Punjab Local Government department had raised objections over submitted projects and sought a detailed explanation and need of each project.

It had further effectively banned all local government bodies including district councils, municipal corporations, town committees and even union councils, from issuing tenders for development projects, even those which the local bodies were to fund using their own resources.

This paralysed the local bodies who were unable to effect any development in their respective areas.

As a result, many local government representatives stopped going to their offices to escape public scrutiny for something they no longer had any control over.

However, Lahore Mayor Col (retired) Mubashir challenged the chief engineer’s directive, telling the court that they had been provided with a questionnaire to fill before progress can be made on any project. However, Col Mubashir argued, those questionnaires were almost impossible to answer by any local government institution.

Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) Mayor Sardar Naseem Khan told Daily Express that they had finalised development schemes worth Rs550 million.

These schemes were to be funded using the municipal corporation’s own funds but were blocked by the chief engineer.

However, he said that in an assembly meeting of the corporation last month had decided with consensus amongst 46 union councils to go ahead with the development schemes.

However, he added that the local government department sent them a questionnaire which seemed impossible to answer.

The Rawalpindi mayor said that now local representatives from across Punjab will urge the Supreme Court to allow them to become a party to the petition filed by the Lahore mayor Lahore as soon as the case is heard.

He added that this problem is being faced by local bodies across Punjab and is affecting the public the most. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2019.