MANSEHRA: Chairmen of the tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils have complained about a delay by the provincial government in temporarily restoring local bodies as ordered by the high court.

“The Peshawar High Court reinstated tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils on March 1 by issuing a stay order but the local government department has yet to notify their restoration, so we can’t discharge our responsibilities assigned under the Local Government Act,” chairman of the Safada Village Council Basharat Ali Swati told a meeting here on Tuesday.

Chairmen of the village and neighbourhood councils from across Mansehra district showed up in the meeting.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had suspended local bodies across the province on Feb 3 until the holding of the provincial assembly elections saying the move to stop all elected local government functionaries from exercising their respective powers and functions is meant to ensure that they don’t influence the upcoming electoral exercise.

However, the high court stayed the move after being petitioned by heads of local bodies.

Mr Swati claimed that the director-general (LG) was reluctant to act on the court’s orders.

Chairman of the Lassan Thakral village council Malik Mumtaz said local body heads met assistant director (LG) Touseef Mushtaq and sought the restoration of their powers to sign cheques and attest documents, but to no avail.

Zahid Lodhi of the Loharbanda neighbourhood council said neither banks nor the National Database and Registration Authority accepted their signatures on cheques and attested documents.

He said the notification delay denied the benefits of the LG system to the people.

The other participants warned that they could take the department to the court for not following its clear orders.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023