LGB elections schedule be finalised, LHC says. PHOTO: FILE
The Punjab Local Government Act 2013 remained under discussion more than any other case at the Lahore High Court last week. Two major political parties had challenged the Act.
The court meanwhile directed the government to announce the schedule for the local elections.
On September 9, Chief Justice Bandial asked the provincial government to state when it was going to hold the local government election. He issued the direction during the hearing of a petition filed in 2010 by Local Councils Association Punjab (LCAP) president Syed Asghar Shah Gillani.
He then adjourned hearing till September 25 telling the government’s counsel to submit the date for the local government elections then.
Last week, the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry and Rizwan Gul filed separate petitions challenging the Act.
They requested the court to declare the Act illegal and unconstitutional and sought directions for the government to hold the elections on a party basis.
Several political leaders tried to take the lead in filing the petition. On Friday, PPP leader Sardar Latif Khosa told the media that he had filed a petition challenging the law, even though he hadn’t. It was submitted on Saturday.
Sigh of relief for Ajmal Niazi
Ajmal Niazi, a columnist for an Urdu daily, breathed easier when the Lahore High Court on September 9 suspended a lower court’s order directing the relevant SHO to register a blasphemy case against him.
An additional district and sessions judge had directed on September 5 that the Islampura SHO record petitioner Mazhar Khan Ashraf’s statement against Niazi. Ashraf had filed a petition through Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, who is counsel in more than a dozen petitions seeking the registration of blasphemy cases.
Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, appearing on behalf of Niazi, challenged the additional session court’s order. He said the petitioner was a renowned writer and had been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz. Zafar said that Niazi’s writings showed that he was an aashiq-i-Rasool.
Zafar said that the writings in question exalted the Prophet’s (pbuh) virtues and that the additional sessions judge had passed the order without applying a judicial mind and had merely been influenced by the petitioners.
Locomotives
On September 12, a Chinese company, Dongfang Electric International Corporation, withdrew its petition against the government over the cancellation of a contract for supply of 75 locomotives.
Counsel for the Chinese company said they were negotiating the matter with the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2013.
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