Pindi commissioner steps down as RMC administrator

RAWALPINDI:

After the Lahore High Court declared the appointment of administrators and issuance of developments funds to lawmakers in Punjab without the approval of the local government unconstitutional illegal, Rawalpindi Commissioner Saqib Manan has stepped down as the administrator of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC).

On the other hand, work on development schemes worth Rs500 million and proposed by PTI MNA Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Punjab Assembly members Fayyaz-ul-Hasan Chauhan, Raja Rashid Hafeez, Ijaz Khan Jazzi and Chaudhry Adnan and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, has been stopped.

After Rawalpindi Commissioner Saqib Manan recused himself from the post of administrator, the chief officer has assumed charge of the administrative and financial affairs of the RMC.

Sources said that the development schemes awarded earlier for constructions and repair of roads, streets, sewerage network and repair of street lights and the installation of new street lights have been halted despite the fact that contractors had started preliminary work on the awarded projects.

The contractors had been directed to complete development schemes in the minimum possible time. However, work on these development schemes had to be stopped after the Lahore High Court decision.

In the absence of the local government system in Punjab, development schemes were proposed by members of the national and provincial assemblies during the current financial year.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2023.