Despite court orders, newly-formed districts still not restored

Caretaker govt leaves Murree, Talagang districts' fate up to next govt

RAWALPINDI:

The caretaker Punjab government has refused to restore the two new districts of Murree and Talagang despite the order of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench to restore them and has left the matter to the newly elected government in the province.

According to sources, till the formation of the new provincial government, both Murree and Talagang districts will function as tehsil headquarters.

The district officers posted in these two districts have been recalled and the administrative control of these two districts has been entrusted to the assistant commissioners while the district officers who were posted in other institutions have also been recalled, the sources said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)'s MNA from Murree, Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, and Talagang Bar's former president and senior lawyer Advocate Malik Kabir told The Express Tribune that if the status of the two districts was not restored by the next week, a contempt of court petition would be filed against the caretaker government.

“There is a clear order of the high court that both the districts are restored which cannot be violated,” they said.

Meanwhile, sources in the caretaker provincial government told The Express Tribune that the economic crisis was severe. “Funds are not available for expenditure on new districts,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2023.