Nazims to receive honoraria from development budget

MANSEHRA: The Nazimeen Ittehad has announced that representatives of 194 village and neighbourhood councils of the district will receive their honoraria from development chunk of budget as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Department had released insufficient amount for the local government system.

“We will spend most of development budget on our honoraria and offices as the money released under these heads is a mockery of representatives of village and neighbourhood councils,” Mohammad Fareed, the president of Nazimeen Ittehad, told a news conference here on Friday.

Basharat Ali Swati, the general secretary, also spoke on the occasion.

Fareed said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Department released an amount of Rs68.75 million for 3,501 village and neighbourhood councils of 26 districts for the current financial year, 2017-18.

“The Finance Department has released an amount of Rs1.4 million for 194 village and neighbourhood councils in Mansehra district, which means each council will receive about Rs7,000 for honoraria of its representatives including nazim and naib nazims, which is joke with us, as each village council disburses Rs360,000 annually to its  representatives,” said Fareed.

Basharat Ali Swati, while speaking on the occasion, denounced the Finance Department for what he called mockery of the LG system.

He said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak should take to task those officials, who had released such a meagre amount for the entire financial year.