PTI launches bid to form own govt in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf provincial president Fazal Mohammad has arrived here to evolve a strategy to install district government after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s district government failed to convene the budget session.
The session was not called even after deputy commissioner asked the district nazim to get budget for the ongoing fiscal year approved from the council. It was needed as the government employees could not be paid salaries for the last couple of months.
“We finalised the budget document on November 20 and asked district mazim to get it okayed from district council within three days as we couldn’t pay salaries and other financial incentives to employees. But the district nazim is yet to summon the session,” Deputy Commissioner Aamir Khattak told reporters.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had installed its district government in Mansehra after four councillors of the PTI had voted for the district nazim contender against the party line.
All the four councillors of PTI, who had supported the PML-N, were de-seated by the Election Commission earlier this month. It left the PML-N district government in a trouble. The council was not even able to pass the annual budget.
The PTI provincial president, Fazal Mohammad, called a meeting. It was attended by the party district councillors, party organiser in the district, Babar Saleem Swati, a former district president Shafaat Ali and former opposition leader in provincial assembly Shahzada Gustasip Khan.
The district councillors said that the PML-N had had stolen their party’s mandate with the support of a dissident general district councillor, two female councillor and a minority councillor. Speaking on occasion, Fazal Mohammad said his party would never indulge in any malpractices carried out in the past by the rival party.
Sources privy to the meeting said a committee had also been constituted to work with the Pakistan People’s Party and others allied parties to install government in the district. Laiq Muhammad Khan, the younger brother of Senator Azam Khan Swati, on the other hand, asserted that the district government was in a position to pass the budget. He said those who were thinking of installing own government in the district were in fact daydreaming.