LAHORE, Aug 26: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday restrained Data Gunj Buksh Town Nazim Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan from exercizing financial powers till Aug 29 on a petition filed by 30 members of the town council.

Justice Rustam Ali Malik also issued notice to Khwaja Hassaan for the next date of hearing.

The court had last week restored Khwaja Hassaan to his office till Sept 3 while suspending the operation of a notification issued by the Punjab local government secretary debarring him to hold his office following the adoption of a no-confidence motion against him.

Petitioners’ counsel Akram Sheikh argued that since Mr Hassaan had been provided interim relief, he should be restrained from using his financial powers till the final decision of the petition filed by him against the notification.

He requested the court to suspend the discretionary powers of the Nazim to preempt any misuse of council’s funds by him.

The counsel accused the town nazim of ignoring the voice of the majority of the members who had vote against him. “He himself had not objected to the no-confidence motion and had resigned from his office, saying he didn’t deserve to hold the office once the house had expressed no-confidence on him,” the counsel claimed.

Under the prevalent laws, the counsel said, once a no-confidence motion was tabled against the prime minister, speaker or the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, none of them could exercise their discretionary powers till a decision on the motion.

In this case, the motion had been adopted and Mr Hassaan had no grounds for using his discretionary powers with regard to use of council’s funds, he contended.

The counsel feared that the town Nazim would not take his clients into confidence while utilizing the council funds till the expiry of the stay granted to him against the local government secretary’s notification.