LAHORE: The Lahore High Court will take up the dissolution of local government case on Friday (tomorrow) to decide the fate of around 58,000 representatives who were elected for the ‘third tier’ of government in 2015-16 in Punjab.

The provincial government dissolved the local governments on May 4 to introduce a new local body setup.

Several petitioners, including Ahmed Iqbal Chaudhry, chairman of defunct Narowal District Council, challenged the dissolution notification in the LHC pleading for declaring it null and void and granting interim relief (stay order) while the case was being heard by the court.

They pleaded that the Article 140-A of the Constitution binds the province to legislate for “establishing” local governments and devolving powers to them and not the vice versa i.e. dissolving them and usurping their powers. The term “local governments” and not “local bodies” or “local authorities” has been used in the Article 140-A, meaning the local governments are elected to the status of a third-tier of government, as recognized by the Supreme Court in a case (2013 SCMR 1629) and not subordinate to provincial governments.

It also pleads that the use of term “devolve” in 140-A instead of “confer functions upon” as in Articles 98 and 138 meant that unlike in the latter case the powers devolved cannot be withdrawn. Likewise, tasking the Election Commission of Pakistan, a federal entity, to hold local government polls aims at reducing provincial leverage over local governments.

The petitioner also pleads that as the apex court has also declared that holding local government elections from time to time is necessary to ensure protection of fundamental rights of the people and on the basis of it the Sindh High Court struck down the amendments made by the Sindh government in 2010 to dissolve the local governments and appoint administrators in place of elected representative and postponing local elections for 120 days.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2019