PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general and local government secretary to defend the creation of Lower Kohistan district made through amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013.

While issuing notices to the two to show up, a bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali fixed the hearing into the petition against the new district for April 2.

The petitioners, including seven former nazims of local councils in Kohistan, including former district nazim Maulana Obaidur Rehman, requested the high court to declare illegal the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Second Amendment) Act 2015 through which amendments were made to the KPLGA for the creation of Lower Kohistan district.

They also requested the court to declare unconstitutional the two impugned notification issued prior to the amendments on Jan 15, 2014, and Feb 7, 2014.

Respondents in the petition are the revenue secretary, provincial government through the chief secretary, local government secretary, Hazara division commissioner, Kohistan deputy commissioner and deputy secretary (revenue).

Barrister Masood Kausar, lawyer for the petitioners, said last year, his clients filed a petition against the creation of Lower Kohistan district through the two impugned notifications and that case was still pending a decision by the court.

He said the provincial government amended the KPLGA through the impugned Act, which was passed by the provincial assembly on Feb 17, 2015.

The lawyer said under the amendments, 23 of the 39 wards of Kohistan district were made part of Lower Kohistan district, while the rest were left with Upper Kohistan district.

He said through the said two impugned notifications issued in 2014, whereby certain tribal areas of Kohistan district had been detached there from and included in the illegally constituted Lower Kohistan district was unconstitutional.

The lawyer said Article 246 of the Constitution showed the ‘tribal areas in Kohistan’ part of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).

He said detaching the areas in question from Kohistan district and including it in Lower Kohistan amounted to changing its status from a tribal area to a settled area for which the procedure provided under the Constitution was not followed.

The petitioners said the notifications issued under sections 5 and 6 of the West Pakistan Land Revenue Act 1967 were without lawful authority as no new district could be created under the provisions of the said Act, which empowered the government only to divide exiting divisions into districts and districts into tehsils.

They added that for the creation of new districts, recourse was required to be made to the West Pakistan (Reconstitution) Ordinance 1960 as was done for the creation of Kohistan district in September 1976.

Meanwhile, the bench also adjourned hearing into an identical petition of MPA Maulana Asmatullah due to the absence of the advocate general failed to could not turn up due to his engagements before the Supreme Court.

Imtiaz Ahmad, lawyer for the petitioner, said he had challenged the two impugned notifications of last year and had filed an amended petition with the court’s permission to challenge the recently passed Act of the provincial assembly.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2015

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