District Council Peshawar members seek Rs20,000 honoraria

PESHAWAR: The members of the City District Council Tuesday demanded from the government to fix Rs20,000 per month honoraria for them or else they would form a ‘pressure group’ to campaign for their rights.

The council met with Naib Nazim Syed Qasim Ali Shah in the chair. Councillor Saeed Zahir criticised the government for not announcing honoraria for the councillors.

He said the MNAs and MPAs were taking handsome salaries and enjoying other perks and privileges. He said monthly honoraria of at least Rs20,000 should also be fixed for them as they too had been elected by the people. He said a number of councillors had no other business and they won’t be able to perform their duties voluntarily.

Councillor Alamzeb Yousafzai said the deputy commissioner seemed to be a representative of the provincial government because under the amended Local Government Act 2013 the district councils, town councils and all the councillors had been made subservient to the deputy commissioner. He said Peshawar District Nazim Mohammad Asim Khan didn’t attend the session of District Council for the last six months and it clearly showed that he didn’t have any powers. He threatened to form a pressure group and take to the streets if their demands were not met.

He expressed concern over the non-allocation of development funds to the councillors. The women members of the District Council also voiced serious concern about non-acceptance of their rights. They said the women members were neglected and were not provided development funds.

Shabana Saifullah said the women members were not even given the floor to speak. Also, she pointed out that no development funds were issued to the women members due to which they could do anything for women development in Peshawar district. She threatened to quit if they were not provided funds.

Meanwhile, the District Council members strongly protested against the printing of names of Allah Almighty and Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on footballs. The members sat on the floor instead of chairs and chanted slogans of ‘Allah-o-Akbar.’ They criticised the Sports Department for distributing footballs among the District Council members on which the names of Almighty Allah and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) were printed. They termed it an act of sacrilege.

District Nazim Mohammad Asim Khan said a committee had been constituted to look into the issue. He added that the balls would be collected from the members. He asked the government to take stern action against the officials responsible for this callous act.