LAHORE, Sept 22: The Lahore High Court suspended on Monday the retrospective application of the Punjab Local Government (recall motions against Nazims and Naib Nazims) Rules, 2003, as a result of which Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Nazim Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan stood restored to his office.

By virtue of this short order, Mandi Bahauddin District Nazim Nazar Muhammad Gondal and Malikwal Tehsil Nazim Nadeem Afzal also stood restored to their respective offices. They, along with Khwaja Hassaan, had been retrained by the Punjab Local Election Authority from using their powers.

The court, however, upheld the recall motions adopted against the three petitioners during the first phase of voting. Therefore, Khwaja Hassaan —- in whose case the PLEA had fixed Sept 23 as the date for voting on the recall motion adopted against him last month —- would have to face the voting on Tuesday (today). No date for the second-phase voting was announced by the PLEA with regard to the other two petitioners.

Under these rules promulgated on Sept 1, 2003, the PLEA had been given powers to restrain the district, tehsil and town Nazims from exercising their authorities following the adoption of recall motions against them during the first phase of voting.

In Hassaan’s case, the PLEA had restrained him from holding his office on Sept 2 after announcing Sept 23 as the date of voting on the recall motion adopted against him.

Without directly referring to the restoration of the three petitioners, Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir observed that since these rules were issued in the official gazette on Sept 18, these would not be considered to be in force prior to this date and all the notifications issued by the PLEA during that period lacked legal recognition. Only those notifications, issued after Sept 18, would have legal binding, the court observed.

“The rules framed under Section 191 of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 are in accordance with law, and have not been made in a mala fide manner. However, the enforcement of these rules and the subsequent issuance of notifications by the PLEA prior to their publication in the official gazette on Sept 18 is unlawful,” the court observed, saying both the PLEA and the provincial government could apply these rules with effect from Sept 18.

Earlier, the counsel of the Mandi Bahauddin Nazim and Malikwal tehsil Nazim completed their arguments after which the court reserved a joint verdict on these petitions. Khwaja Hassaan’s counsel Muhammad Ahmad Qayyum requested the court to allow his client to make some submissions in person. However, the court turned down the request with an observation that it was not appropriate at this stage, as his (Hassaan’s) counsel had already argued at length.

The Data Ganj Bakhsh town members remained in the courtroom till Hassaan and the other two petitioners were summoned by the judge in his retiring room at 3:30pm where he pronounced the verdict. After coming out of the retiring room, Khwaja Hassaan informed the party workers that he stood restored to his office by virtue of the verdict.

The workers raised slogans in the courtroom from where they had been pushed out.