The nazims and naib nazims held a meeting at the office of the Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) in Booni and decided to fight for their rights. They also formed a cabinet with naib nazim of village council Booni-II Muhammad Pervez Lal as its president. The other office-bearers of the cabinet are: Salamat Khan, nazim village council Booni-I, general secretary; Iqbal Murad, naib nazim village council Ozznu, senior vice-president; Farid Uddin, from Warijun, finance secretary; Sher Azam, naib nazim village council Brep, joint secretary, and Mohamamd Ajam, Chapali, information secretary.
Talking to ChitralToday on phone, Muhammad Pervez Lal, the president of the cabinet, said the elected village council nazims and naib nazims constituted the body in order to get their rights as promised by the PTI government so that they can serve the masses as promised during the elections.
He regretted that even after about eight months, there was no progress on the provincial government’s promises to empower the local governments. He said after the LG elections, the government dumped the elected representatives. There was no need to hold the elections if the government was not serious in empowering the people at the local level as promised.
“Even eight months after the elections, we have no offices, no local government secretary, no funds and even do not know what our functions are? This is very disappointing that despite making tall claims the PTI government has dumped the elected members.”
He said the meeting gave 10-day deadline to the government to clarify the roles and functions of the elected local government members after which they would hold a sit-in outside the deputy commissioner office in Chitral along with the elected members of lower Chitral.
He said if the government continued its step-motherly step towards the elected representatives of the people, the members would have no other option but to resign as there was no use of being part of such a dummy system.
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