‘Tell govt to hold local elections’

Petition alleges violation of constitution.

LAHORE:

A constitutional petition has been moved in the Lahore High Court praying for a direction to the Punjab government to hold the local government elections.

The petition, filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Inqilab through its chairman Advocate Ilmuddin Ghazi, submitted that the Punjab government was violating Article 32 of the Constitution by not holding local polls and running the district governments through arbitrarily nominated administrators.

The petitioner named the Punjab government through its chief secretary, the Local Government Department through its secretary and the provincial Election Commission as respondents in the petition.

He said the government had unlawfully appointed administrators to run the affairs of the district governments which had resulted in deprivation and alienation of voters.

He said citizens’ frustration was on the rise in the absence of elected representatives at the level of district, tehsil and wards.

He said the public now needed to approach MNAs and MPAs for their day-to-day problems.

The petitioner prayed to the court to cancel the appointment of local government administrators declaring it unlawful and unconstitutional and issue directions to the government and the provincial Election Commission to conduct local elections without any further delay.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2011.