LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed petitions by the representatives of the local government seeking the provision of a time period excluded from their tenure due to the suspension of the system by the Punjab government.

Lahore’s lord mayor retired Col Mubashir Javed and representatives from different cities were the petitioners.

The counsel for the petitioners argued that the representatives were aggrieved of the illegal dissolution of the local government without following the procedure of the succeeding legislation in 2019 by which they were deprived of representing the electorate for almost 22 months.

They said the petitioners were denied the legitimate expectation to serve the public interest of their constituents, which was not only against the doctrine of democracy but also an infringement of their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution.

Mayor, reps from different cities were petitioners

They asked the court to direct the government to issue a notification in respect of the period the petitioners remained out of their offices. They also urged the court to restrain the government from holding LG elections expiry of the petitioner’s tenure.

An additional advocate general opposed the petitions, saying the matter was not maintainable before the high court. He said the Supreme Court in its decision regarding the restoration of the suspended local government system declared that the Punjab Local Government Act of 2019 was lawfully passed, however, nullified its section 3 only that was about the dissolution of the government.

The law officer argued that the petitioners should have a review petition before the apex court.

A counsel for one of the petitioners had earlier urged the court to declare that the transition should be done from the government to government without the appointment of the administrators.

Announcing a short order, Justice Jawad Hassan dismissed the petitions.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2021