LAKKI MARWAT: The sudden adjournment of the district council budget session on Friday pleased the opposition benchers, but left the treasury members quite astonished as they were on the verge of approving the worth Rs275 million budget with a majority vote.

The budget meeting was presided over by district naib nazim Haji Arab Khan at the district headquarters complex, Tajazai.

At the end of the meeting, the treasury members stood up to give their consent to the uplift budget, but the naib nazim, being the convener of the house, announced to postpone the meetingtillnext Wednesday, and left the venue.

The sudden ruling of the convener astonished the district nazim Ishfaq Ahmad Khan Meenakhel and treasurymembers.

However, opposition members welcomed the decision and thumped their desks as they viewed that a huge chunk of the funds had been placed under the discretionary head.

Earlier, during the course of the meeting, the members from both the treasury and opposition spoke on the budget.

Mohammad Halim demanded purchasing new furniture and making proper seating arrangements in the district council hall and payment of salaries to the council employees.

`The approval of the budget will pave the way to kick off the process of bringing development to the area,` Hanifullah Khan, another member said.

Maulana Asghar Ali demanded equal distribution of development funds among all the members belonging to both treasury and opposition benches.

A female member, Basmeera Bibi, said she and her female colleagues had to face transport problems to come to attend councils` meetings in Tajazai.

Advocate Salahuddin said discretionary funds were not meant for only district nazim and that all the members of the council had due share in them.

Jamil Ahmad Khan expressed his reservations over the discretionary funds and asl
Malik Naseer said people in his union council were without the facilities of water, electricity and roads.

Another member, Khalid Khan, expressed resentment over the excessive power outages in Ghaznikhel and Kherukhel Pakka union councils and asked the district nazim and deputy commissioner to take notice of the matter.