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| August 23, 2005 | Tuesday | Rajab 17, 1426 |
Former nazims’ pleas still pending in PHC
PESHAWAR, Aug 22: About a dozen writ petitions filed by former district nazims regarding infringement of their constitutional and legal rights by the provincial government have been pending before the Peshawar High Court.
In one of these petitions the high court has to decide a question of vital importance — who is the chief executive of the province, the governor or the chief minister.
The court has also to decide if, after completion of their tenure, the petitions of former nazims have become infructuous.
One petition was filed by the then nazim Kohistan district Maulana Ubaidullah in 2003. He had challenged proceedings started against him by the NWFP government after a motion was moved against him in the NWFP Assembly for his removal under section 23 of the NWFP Local Government Ordinance and a special committee was constituted by the assembly for dealing with the issue.
The petitioner had raised a law point that governor, and not chief minister, was the chief executive of the province and only governor was empowered to move such a motion against him in the assembly.
In June 2003 the high court had asked the Attorney General of Pakistan to assist the court on that law point. On Aug 28, a single bench of the Supreme Court had restrained the NWFP government from taking any adverse action against the petitioner and had directed the high court to decide the petition in one month.
Since then the petition has been pending without any substantial progress. During its pendency petitioner Maulana Ubaidullah joined Jamaat-i-Islami, a component party of the ruling Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, following which the provincial government also lost interest in the case.
Another important petition was filed in May last year by 20 out of 24 district nazims of NWFP. The petition was admitted to full hearing by a two-member bench on Oct 28, 2005.
The petitioners have challenged a number of steps taken by the NWFP government, including the formation of the NWFP Local Government Commission, posting and transfers of government officers without consultation and approval of the district nazims concerned, etc.
The petitioners had requested the court to declare violation of the NWFP Local Government Ordinance 2001 by the provincial government as illegal and against the law.
The Nazims have prayed the court to “declare that Rule 25 & Schedule IV of District Government Rules of Business 2001 in respect of posting & transfers of employees is against the spirit of the NWFP Local Government Ordinance 2001 and that district nazim being the head of the district government, no employee in Grade-17 and above can be transferred by the provincial government from his district without his consultation and further that consultation has to be meaningful and his views cannot be ignored without reason.”
The petitioners have further prayed the court to declare that in respect of the employees below Grade-17 the executive district officer and DCO are obliged by law to seek approval of the district nazim before issuing posting/ transfer orders of the employees within or outside the district.
Moreover, it is requested that the Revenue Department, after having been decentralised, has to function under the administrative and financial control of the district nazim and any directive by the Board of Revenue, that excludes the district nazim, is illegal and in violation of the Ordinance. It is added that appropriate orders be given to the board for issuing proper notification that functionaries of the Revenue Department in the district shall function under the administrative control of the district nazim and patwaris etc and shall not be transferred without approval/ consent of the district nazim.
The petitioners have prayed the court to declare that MNAs and MPAs are required to concentrate on legislative business in the legislature and should not interfere in the development schemes in districts. They have fuartehr prayed the court to issue instructions to the provincial government that public money should not be wasted in so called allocation of the development funds to the MNAs and MPAs for their utilisation on selected schemes.
In Sep 2004, the court had clubbed together this petition with eight other writ petitions of district nazims challenging various steps of the provincial government.
A bench comprising the then Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi had ordered that these petitions should be fixed during first week of October.
During the last hearing of these petitions in June, the bench had observed that when the petitioner nazims completed their tenure the petitions would become infructuous. However, the petitioners’ counsel, Qazi Muhammad Anwer, had pointed out that law points were involved in the petitions and therefore even after completion of their tenure the court had to decide these questions.
The petitioners’ counsel had contended that the petitions were of immense importance as smooth functioning of the local government system was dependent on their final outcome.
Abdul Lateef Afridi, appearing for some of the petitioners, had stated that all the 24 districts in the province had subordinate employees and unless the petitions were disposal of the controversies between provincial and districts governments would continue.
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