LAHORE: The PML-N, during the 34th session of the Punjab Assembly on Friday, demanded the government restore local government in the province in the light of the Supreme Court judgment.

The proceedings of the session commenced three hours late than its scheduled time here on Friday. The PML-N lawmakers raised the issue in the question hour and through points of order.

Former speaker Rana Iqbal warned the PTI-led government against committing contempt of court by not restoring the local government. He said 58,000 elected representatives of the people were inactive for the last over two years as the government had neither introduced a new local body system nor did it allow the previous one to work.

When MPA Iftikhar Chhachhar raised the issue as a supplementary query during the question hour, he was told to submit a fresh query for a detailed answer.

Samiullah Khan, another PML-N legislator, regretted that the elected representatives couldn’t be restored though the apex court had ruled in their favour two months ago. Referring to Nawaz Sharif’s restoration as the prime minister on Supreme Court orders back in 1993, he said if a prime minister could be restored on the court order why not a councilor.

The proceedings were adjourned for Monday afternoon after introduction of the Punjab Stamps (Amendment) Bill 2021 and presentation of reports on four Daanish Schools and three centres of excellence.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2021