LAHORE, June 15: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday adjourned for June 21 the hearing of a writ petition through which Mian Mohammad Usman, Naib Nazim of the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town , had sought a stay order against voting on a no-confidence motion against him.

The town council voted the Naib Nazim out of office in a session held on Monday (June 14). The court, declining the request to stop the process of voting, issued notices to the Punjab government, City District Nazim Mian Aamer Mahmood and the town administration requiring them to explain if the no-trust motion against the Naib Nazim was within the legal ambit of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance-2000.

No proceedings took place on Tuesday as the court had not received a reply from the respondents. The petitioner was also absent. The petition, moved through Barrister Mohammad Ahmad Qayyum, questioned legality of the motion and submitted that Mian Usman was being politically victimized for returning a similar motion against town Nazim Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan.

He stated that in his capacity as the speaker of the town council, he had returned the no-trust motion against Mr Hassan because the law provided that no such motion could be moved twice in one year.

The petitioner submitted that he returned the no-trust motion against the town Nazim because it was the second one in a single year. By doing so, he acted within the legal provisions. But he was being punished for his legal decision. He submitted that the no-trust motion against him was being moved on the ground that he returned the motion against Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan with malafide intentions.

Advocate-General Syed Shabbar Raza Razvi rebutted the claim that no such motions could be moved twice in a year under the law. He submitted that the first motion against Khawaja Ahmad Hassan was not carried and the council members had every right to move a no-trust motion against the Nazim. The return of the motion, according to him, was unlawful and the Naib Nazim should have convened a session for the voting process.