MANSEHRA: The Abbottabad Circuit Bench of the Peshawar High Court on Monday summoned the representatives of authorities, including Election Commission of Pakistan, to appear before it on June 14 to clarify their respective positions on the long delay in the election of tehsil presiding officers in the province.

The petition was filed by a group of village and neighbourhood council heads complaining that the ECP was the competent authority to hold tehsil presiding officer polls under the Local Government Act but it had failed to do so.

Malik Mumtaz, a candidate for the office of tehsil presiding officer, told reporters here that a year had passed since the installation of local governments in the province but benefits of the LG system had yet to reach the grassroots level as the tehsil councils didn’t have their custodians, presiding officers.

He was accompanied by a group of village and neighbourhood councils from the district.

Local body heads moved Abbottabad bench for relief

Chairman of the Safada village council Basharat Ali Swati said tehsil councillors from Peshawar division had moved the high court in January this year against TPO polls in 12 tehsils only and secured a stay order against the electoral exercise.

“Election was stayed in 12 tehsils only, but the ECP didn’t hold elections in all 131 tehsil councils of the province,” he said.

TRAVELLERS ALLOWED: The police on Monday allowed people from travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan via the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road after clearing glaciers and landslides from the artery in Kaghan valley.

“The MNJ Road will be open to KP-GB traffic from 9am to 5pm as we have removed glaciers and landslides between Basal area and Babusar Top,” district police officer Zahoor Babar Afridi said in a news release.

The tourists, who thronged Kaghan valley in the last couple of days, left for Gilgit-Baltistan after the National Highway Authority cleared hurdles from the key road in the valley.

The road was blocked to traffic in November last year after heavy snowfall in Kaghan valley.

The police said in the news release that motorists and transporters won’t be allowed to cross over the Babusar Top and Jalkhad areas at night to ensure passenger safety.

They warned that the weather could become inclement anytime blocking the artery.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Kaghan Hoteliers Association Hassan Deen told reporters that the traffic between GB and KP was restored after the district administration gave a green light for it.

He said the traffic, which was blocked in Batta Kundi following a massive landslidethe other day, was cleared to traffic.

Meanwhile, 10 people were booked here for renting houses without getting themselves registered with police.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023