Town Nazim comes under for transfers
Opposition questions how a town nazim could dismiss secretaries and order audit
KARACHI: During the course of the city council session, opposition leader, Saeed Ghani brought up some issues faced by his union council, along with others (in Jamshed Town) governed by opposition members. When they were told to bring the issue up separately with the convener in her chambers, however, the opposition decided to walk out and hold a separate press conference.
“After we spoke out in the session for the past two days, we were ‘punished’ today by the Jamshed Town Nazim Arif Ajakia,” Ghani said.
“Te secretaries from UCs 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Jamshed Town were called to the Town Office and were told that they have been transÂferred, and cannot go back to their old offices. Also, banks were called up and told not to accept the secretaries’ signature on cheques.”
Saeed Ghani is the nazim for UC-4, Imran Baghpati is the nazim for UC-5, Saifuddin is the nazim for UC-6, while Zahid Saecd is the nazim for UC-7.
“This is a tactic being used to pressure us,” Ghani said. “I spoke to the TO (Municipal Regulations) and asked him why this had been done. According to the SLGO, the UC is an independent entity. If a secretary has to be transferred, transfer orders are sent, then the UC nazim relieves the secretary of his or her duties, records are handed over, and then the secretary is free to go. You can’t just call them up and tell them that they have been transferred, and that they can’t go back to their offices.”
A union council’s administration comprises the UC nazim, the naib nazim, and the secretary. The nazim and the secretary are co-signatories in all financial transactions. By blocking the signature of the secretaries, the flow of finances to an entire union council has been effectively blocked.
According to Ghani, when he spoke to the TO (MR), he was told that the secretaries had indeed been transferred on orders from the town nazim Arif Ajakia. “The TO agreed that my reasoning was right, but he couldn’t do anything, and that, 1 should speak with the town nazim, Ghani said.
“When I called up the town nazim, he said that there were reasons that the secretaries were transferred, but he couldn’t tell me those reasons,” he said. “You can’t simply transfer my secretary without giving me any reaÂsons. When pressed further, Ajakia said that he had taken this step because our union councils were ‘not functioning properly’.”
By law, however, keeping a check on how UCs function is not the responsibility of the town nazim, Ghani said. “The CDGK is not allowed to interÂfere in matters concerning union councils. Ajakia said that an audit would tell us what the problems in our UCs were. We told him that they were welcome to audit us – in fact, the town office records should be audited too.”
The UC nazims concerned, however, have given the town nazim an ultimatum: If our secretaries are not back by tonight, we will protest in front of the town office.
Daily Times spoke to Ajakia. “I am well within my legal boundaries in ordering the transfers of these secretaries,” he said. “There is a lot of corruption in their records, and auditors have been sent over to check them out.”
Saeed Ghani quoted, however, a letter issued by the former DCO about the transfer of a secretary in July 2002. The DCO had said that the town nazim has no right to order the transfer of secretaries, and the nazim concerned had been ordered to present an explanation of his actions within three days.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/22/2007
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