Cantt boards dissolution faces legal scrutiny

RAWALPINDI:

Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi Bench Judge Justice Raza Ahmed Qureshi, while hearing constitutional petitions against the dissolution of 44 Cantonment Boards across the country, has allowed the vice presidents and members of the petitioners' boards to submit a requisition to the competent authority to convene regular meetings of the Cantonment Boards.

Following the court order, the members submitted a formal requisition to convene meetings of the Cantonment Boards of Rawalpindi, Chaklala and Wah Cantt. A decision on these petitions may be heard today.

The High Court, while hearing the arguments of the petitioners' lawyer Malik Siddique Awan and the Deputy Attorney General, observed that there is a constitutional gap in this regard and has summoned the Federal Law Secretary to the court today, for a constitutional and legal explanation in this regard. It also approved the petitioners' request for the requisition of the competent authority to convene the meetings of the Cantonment Boards.

It added that there is a legal gap in the dissolution of the Cantonment Boards and the establishment of temporary three-member boards. Therefore, the Federal Law Secretary has been summoned to appear in court tomorrow and explain this.

The petitioners' position was that the constitutional term of the Cantonment Boards is till March 31, 2026. They said that the Election Commission had also accepted this position. "It is our constitutional right to serve the people till this date, and it cannot be abolished.