RMC warns of protest if tenure cut short

Decides to rent out three floors of its old building

RAWALPINDI: Elected representatives of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) have rejected the newly-proposed municipal system and have warned that the 58,000 elected members will take to the streets if they were abandoned by the incumbent provincial government.

This decision was unanimously taken by public representatives, including opposition members in the RMC, during a meeting of the corporation on Thursday.

During Thursday’s session, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem tabled a resolution in which he accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government of lying about bringing any positive changes.

Instead, he said that the new local government system was an attempt by the government to bring its own favourite faces onto key positions in the local government.

Naseem further stated that the government had mala fide intentions to seize the powers granted to elected representatives under the garb of devolving power to the grassroots.

He complained that since the PTI government had taken over the reins in Lahore, no money was released for the municipal bodies. Moreover, he said that the provincial government had desisted from releasing around Rs700 million for the past nine months despite orders from the Supreme Court.

To make matters worse, Naseem said that the government was not even allowing the RMC to undertake projects which it could fund using the revenue it was generating.

The Rawalpindi mayor expressed the fear that unlike municipal bodies in the rest of the country, he did not see the current local body system in Punjab surviving until its natural term expires.

A resolution moved in the house was unanimously approved.

Chairmen from PTI Azhar Iqbal Satti and PPP’s Anjum Farooq Paracha offered their support to members across the aisle by stating that they will not allow the government to sabotage their mandate.

While addressing Rawalpindi Mayor Naseem, they said that the house should be locked down and the elected representatives should take to the streets against the government’s efforts to render them powerless.

“We do not want to stay in such a crippled system,” they added.

They expressed their support for the mayor, adding that they will oblige every direction of the mayor.

Budgets approved

The Rawalpindi on Thursday also approved funds for different schemes during its meeting on Thursday. The meeting was headed by the Deputy Mayor and Convener Chaudhry Tariq and saw Rawalpindi Mayor Naseem, Chief Officer Khawaja Imran, elected members and all related officials participate.

The house agreed to rent out the first three floors of its old, five-storey building on Liaquat Road to house a commercial shopping complex.

On a proposal by Municipal Officer Regulation, the elected chairmen strongly opposed a move to rent the old RMC building on cheap rates for commercial use. They pointed out that the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) had offered to rent the building for around Rs2.3 million per month due to the efforts of former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Hanif Abbasi.

However, they lamented that the bureaucracy had allegedly conspired against the deal and the agreement fell through.

They said that the building had been rented out for Rs1.6 million, which signified that some corruption was involved. At this, the Municipal Officer Finance told the house that the building was rented after the district rent assessment committee assessed its rent and a bidding process was followed for renting the building.

The highest bid, the finance officer disclosed, was placed by Sultan Mehmood Satti. He added that as per the agreement to rent the building, the winning bidder will be obligated to renovate the building while they will also be subject to pay a 10% increase in rent every year.

They added that the current PTI government was lodging fake and baseless cases against the PML-N.

Moreover, it approved Rs220 million for paying pensions and Rs4 million each for a dengue drive and an excavator to be used in anti-encroachment operations. Funds for the projects will be provided from the annual development budgets.

The corporation also approved Rs4.5 million for repairing various roads.

The corporation decided to form a committee which will be responsible for ensuring that all manholes in the city are covered.

Moreover, the RMC approved Rs1.5 million for security guards who will be deployed to guard the general bus stand.

The house agreed to form a second committee. This committee will comprise six members, including the chairmen of three union councils. Led by the Municipal Officer for Finance, it will auction all the items seized and recovered during the anti-encroachment operations in the city. This committee will also review plans for upgrading the well general bus stand.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2019.