DI Khan district council budget challenged in PHC

PTI members move against district nazim of own party

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members along with opposition members of other political parties on Saturday challenged the PTI-led Dera Ismail Khan District Council’s budget for the year 2016-17 in the Peshawar High Court (PHC). A total of 34 members of the Dera Ismail Khan District Council, including 12 from the PTI, have jointly challenged the passing of the budget through their lawyer Muhammad Muazzam Butt.

Those who have approached the court include PTI District Council members Inamul Haq, Saifullah, Malik Fateh Sher, Muhammad Iqbal, Qais Javed, Abdur Rauf, Habibullah Khan, Naheed Bukhari, Tuba Zahidah, Ambreen Fatima, Gulshan Bibi and Muhammad Tariq Pervaiz. The members from other political parties who filed the petition include Syed Muhammad Ali, Sajjad Sherani and others from the JUI-F and ANP.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor through his secretary, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through secretary local government and secretary law and parliamentary affairs, District Nazim Azizullah Khan Alizai, and commissioner and deputy commissioner Dera Ismail Khan were made parties in the petition.

The petition stated that a meeting was convened on August 2 for the budget session of 2016-17, but the session was convened in haste, and thus the petitioners could not attend it. However, they noted that in the electronic media it was reported that all the members of PTI attended the meeting and voted in favour of the passage of budget. They said they requested for the grant of the copies of the attendance record or access to the record but their request was declined.

They claimed the district nazim illegally counted the votes of the petitioners and thus passed the budget through an unlawful way. They said the district nazim required a minimum of 38 votes in favour out of the house of 74 to pass the budget, while of the 51 members present in the budget session the 16 members of JUI-F voted against it. They said the other opposition parties and independent members also voted against the budget and only 32 members voted in its favour, though under the law 38 members are required out of the total 74 for passing the budget. They said the PTI member provincial assembly Samiullah Alizai also attended the budget session to influence District Council members to pass the budget.

“The unelected/strangers were in attendance at the budget session whereas these proceedings were conducted in haste and under the malafide and colourful exercise of authority of District Nazim,” the petition said. It requested the court to declare the passage of budget as unlawful and of no legal effect and also disqualify the district nazim as he had lost the confidence of the house. The court was also appealed to direct the government not to release any amount in pursuance of the budget in question till final decision of the court.