The NWFP Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Sardar Muhammad Idrees said on Wednesday that the NWFP government had not asked federal government to appoint administrators in districts before the upcoming local government elections. "If the central government decided to appoint administrators before election then non-political and impartial persons will be appointed to ensure free and fair local government elections," he said while speaking at the "Guest Hour Programme" of the Peshawar Press Club.
He said that MMA would conduct free and fair election of local bodies and there was no truth in claims that MMA would influence these elections. "Our past record indicates that we did not interfere in the by-elections of union council Nazims," he said.
Idrees said that provincial government had established good relations with district governments and did not create hurdles in the smooth running of these governments. He said though they had the power to dismiss any district Nazim for misconduct but they did not utilise this power and solved all issues amicably. He said that he had conducted special inspection of 14 districts and would complete the inspection of remaining 10 districts of the province before June. He said so far the local government commission had recovered million of rupees from these districts.
Regarding the action against some district Nazims in the province, Idrees said the provincial assembly had constituted a special committee to conduct inquiry against some Nazims but Supreme Court of Pakistan stopped them from any notification against them. When asked about the inquiry against Nazim Town-III, he said all the issues had been solved with him and said they were not against anyone but want them to perform with honesty.
He said that local bodies' election should be conducted in April this year. He said that in the new system district Naib Nazim would be elected by the concerned district council and reserved seats for women would be minimised. "All the four provinces are agreed upon the new system of local government and every thing was decided with mutual understanding, " he said.
About the development of capital city Peshawar, minister said local government did not utilise the funds provided for the construction of roads, however chief minister had issued special directives for this. He informed that they were concentrating on traffic problems of the city and soon Suri Pul project would be started to overcome this problem.
About the water supply schemes for Peshawar city, Idrees said that special fund had been allocated in the ADP to make a channel for providing clean drinking water from Warsak dam, besides a waste management plant would also be made to dispose of waste of the city. He appealed to the people to elect honest people in the next local bodies' elections so as to solve their problems. He hoped that new system of local bodies would enable the people to solve their problems at the grass root level and a good administration would come as a result of the recent changes in this system.