RAWALPINDI: With the enforcement of new local government system in Punjab, the process of appointments and transfers of officials has begun in Rawalpindi on Saturday.
Under the new system, the local government will constitute of a metropolitan corporation, municipal corporation, municipal committee, town committee, and tehsil council.
The process formally began after Punjab Local Government Secretary Muhammad Iqbal Mazhar issued a notification relating transfers and appointments of officials in different areas including Murree, Kalar Syedan, Kahuta, Chakwal, Attock and towns.
According to the details, Metropolitan Officer Planning Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) Abdul Salam Abbasi has been transferred to municipal committee Attock while Planning Officer District Council Rawalpindi Shehzad Haider has been appointed as Planning Officer in RMC.
Further, Building Inspector RMC Saqib Ashfaq has also been transferred to Tehsil Council Rawalpindi.
According to the sources, the preparations of lists of officials for transfers and appointments in different departments including planning, infrastructure, finance, etc was underway.
The sources told that the process would be completed before the elections of the new local bodies system.
Zakat committees
The long-pending issue of formation of district zakat committee has been finally resolved as the provincial government has appointed its chairman after a period of 18 months.
According to a notification issued in this regard on Saturday, Ghulam Hasan Khan has been appointed as the chairman committee who will head a 12-member committee including two female members named Kulsoom Chaudhry and Maroof Saleem.
The other members include Malik Abdul Waheed, Chaudhry Omar Jaleel, Raja Zafar Iqbal, Raja Amjad Mehmood, Mahmood Abbasi, Pervaiz Ahmed, Inayatullah Satti, representative of deputy commissioner (DC) and district zakat officer.
Punjab government has released funds of Rs 100 million which would be distributed among the needy people.
The committee had been dissolved in May 2018 before general elections after which its formation kept facing delays.
Dengue workers denied leave
Despite that the dengue season is over with the outset of cold weather across the country, the district administration has announced to continue its anti-dengue campaign.
The administration is still organising dengue review meetings while the workers of the campaign are irked that their leaves are still under suspension despite the fact that dengue-threat has fallen to an extreme low and the same amount of efforts against the deadly mosquitoes were not required now.
The experts are of the view that the campaign should be called-off now and restart in February as the dengue threat go below 5% during cold season. They added that the administration could utilize this period of up to four months for preparations of the next campaign.
It is pertinent to note that only 13 dengue patients were reported in hospitals of garrison city on Saturday which testifies that the threat has gone down sharply to a large extent.
Meanwhile, during the current season, 78 people died of the dengue fever in the twin cities, while as many as 14,266 people were found dengue-positive.
It is notable that due to delay in commencement of anti-dengue campaign, the curable disease has taken the shape of an epidemic in the province and Punjab topped the list across the country with most number of patients.
The public hospitals in the district witnessed an average of 150-180 patients daily despite the rigorous efforts of the district government while no proper data of the patients brought to private hospitals was available for correct figures.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2019.
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