Full bench formed to hear petitions challenging LG Act

PML-N former federal minister Daniyal Aziz challenges legislation in LHC

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan constituted a full bench on Tuesday to hear petitions challenging the ‘Punjab Local Government Act 2019’ which was recently passed by the Punjab Assembly.

The full bench will be headed by Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh while Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Jawad Hassan will be the other members.

Earlier, while hearing similar petitions filed against the piece of legislation, Justice Mamoon Rashid referred them to the LHC chief justice and requested that a full bench be constituted for their hearing.

On Tuesday, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s (PML-N) former federal minister Daniyal Aziz challenged the legislation at LHC. His petition was also forwarded to the full bench.

The former minister’s counsel contended that the Local Government Act contradicts the Constitution as well as the decisions of the superior courts. The counsel raised a point that the local government act was divided between party and non-party elections.

He argued that no legal procedures were adopted to end the five years limit for elected members of the local government. The counsel implored the court that the five years duration was ended ‘illegally’.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI) provincial government usurped administrative, economic and political powers of the local government, he maintained. He appealed to the court to set aside the legislation and for the notification issued by the government to be declared null and void.

On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Asif Cheema contended that the legislation was the government’s right and appealed to the court to dismiss the petition.

Speaking to the media persons, Daniyal Aziz said that Prime Minister Imran Khan took a U-turn on the local government issue. Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said the local governments would be empowered. However, their funds have been stopped for the past eight months, he claimed.

“This is equivalent to putting pressure on candidates through non-party based elections,” he said. He was of the view that the district government was abolished in the name of empowering local governments.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2019.