New provinces: LHC denies stay on commission report

Hearing adjourned till March 1 as deputy attorney general absent.

LAHORE:

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan of the Lahore High Court on Monday turned down the request for a stay order on the report of the parliamentary commission for the formation of a Bahawalpur-South Punjab province and adjourned the hearing for March 1.

Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hayee Gilani, representing the Federation, did not turn up before the court on Monday. Petitioner Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique asked the court to issue a stay order on the commission’s report, if any, for the formation of the new province. The judge denied the request, saying that it would be considered at the next hearing.

The petitioner has challenged the formation of the parliamentary commission and its recommendation for the inclusion of Mianwali district in the proposed Bahawalpur-South Punjab province.

At the previous hearing, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that the commission was constituted illegally by the president through a letter to the deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

The petitioner contends that the National Assembly speaker is not authorised to form a commission on the subject of new provinces, and that the inclusion of Mianwali in the proposed province is against the will of local citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2013.