LHC restores cantonment boards across country

Quashes notification of federal govt, dissolving all 44 cantonments

RAWALPINDI:

After the restoration of Punjab's local bodies by the Supreme Court, the Lahore High Court has also restored the cantonment boards across the country.

In October last year, the Military Lands and Cantonments, citing a federal cabinet decision, dissolved elected boards of 44 cantonments, replacing them with mini-boards.

The notification of the federal government was challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC) by Malik Munir Ahmad and Raja Irfan Imtiaz, the vice presidents of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards, respectively through Advocate Razzaq A Mirza.

Justice Shahid Jamil of the LHC Rawalpindi bench had reserved the verdict after hearing the views of the lawyers of the petitioners and the government as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The judge, while issuing the reserved judgment, allowed the petitions and quashed the notification of the federal government, reinstating the public representatives and giving them the power to continue working till the next cantonment elections.

The judge directed the federal government to approach the ECP for holding new elections.

Public representatives of 44 cantonment boards across the country will be reinstated.

Also read: Cantonment boards unseat elected members

Advocate Mirza said, “The court has annulled the federal government’s notification to dissolve the boards.”

Public representatives of cantonment boards across the country will now be able to continue working until the next election.

“The federal government is directed to ensure that the elections of the cantonment boards, throughout the country, are conducted at the earliest, by forwarding the formal request for this purpose to the ECP, expeditiously,” the verdict read.

It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the elected public representatives in the 44 cantonment boards across the country belonged to the opposition parties – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party – along with public representatives elected on party lines in line with the orders of the Supreme Court.