LAHORE: Former Mayor of Lahore retired Col Mubashir Javed terms the Punjab government’s act of appointing administrators on Dec 31 unconstitutional, urging the government to avoid intervening in the affairs of the local governments.

He also announced to challenge the appointment of administrators before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“Appointing administrators on Dec 31 is absolutely an illegal and unconstitutional act of the provincial government. It is clearly written in the apex court’s detailed judgment that the government cannot appoint administrators until announcement of the election schedule,” he said while talking to Dawn on Sunday.

“This is unlawful as well as unconstitutional and liable to be challenged. And we will do it very soon,” Mr Javed declared.

Terms govt’s Dec 31 step unconstitutional

Earlier, through a letter written to the Punjab government on Dec 31, the former mayor said the local governments in Punjab were elected in 2015-16 under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 and they were constitutionally and legally entitled to complete their term, which comprised of five years (from the date of their first meeting). This term, he argued, was intercepted by Section 3 of the Punjab Local Goverment Act-2019.

“This term has been declared ultra vires by the august Supreme Court of Pakistan in its judgement cited as PLD 2021 SC 770 (Asad Ali Khan Vs Province of Punjab etc), directing that “as noted above, the trampling on elected local government, which has come with its mandate and with promise to the people of their constituencies, cannot be dissolved by section 3 of the act of 2019, for it is in direct conflict with articles 17 read with articles 140A, 7 and 32 of the constitution,” the letter reads.

The local governments, according to the letter, were dissolved on May 4, 2019 and despite the orders of the august court on March 25, 2021, were restored vide notification issued on Oct 17. In this way, the local governments have been denied 897 days of their lawful tenure. Meanwhile, these governments were handed over to the administrators.

The letter said the provincial government had no powers or right to deal with the matters devolved upon the local government; therefore, it could not delegate the powers to administrators or any unelected person, which would be an act in violation of the preamble and articles 4, 7, 8, 17, 32, 39, 140-A of the constitution as well as decision of the Superior Court in various cases, including, but not limited to, Asad Ali Khan case.

“Our writ petition regarding implementation of the apex court’s verdict is already in the Lahore High Court. We will also raise the issue (appointment of administrators) before the court on the next hearing date. Meanwhile, we will also challenge this in the apex court too,” the former Mayor said.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2022