PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the provincial government to respond to a set of petitions against amendments to the local government law, especially the provisions related to their powers.

Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali later fixed Oct 23 for the next hearing.

The bench issued directions during the hearing into five almost identical petitions filed by heads of several tehsil councils, including Mardan city mayor Himayatullah Mayar, Peshawar mayor Haji Zubair, Pabbi tehsil council chairman Ghayur Khattak, and other local body heads.

The petitioners requested the court to declare unconstitutional the KP Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2022, which was enacted by the PTI-led provincial government in 2022.

Fixes next hearing for Oct 23

The petitioners also sought the suspension of action on the impugned changes to the law until the final disposal of the case, as an interim relief.

Earlier, the caretaker provincial government had filed its comments on the petitions, saying they had no legal powers to reverse the impugned amendments.

It insisted that it would be up to the elected government to take decision in the matter.

An additional advocate general informed the bench that negotiations had been in progress between the provincial government and the local councils representatives on the issue and therefore, the hearing should be put off.

Babar Khan Yousafzai and Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah, counsel for the petitioners, said the government had been using delaying tactics on the matter.

They said that funds had so far not been released to local governments for development schemes and instead, the provincial government had been utilising them.

They requested the bench to decide the petitions on the basis of available records.

Babar Yousafzai said that KP Local Government Act, 2013, clearly spelled out the powers and functions of mayors of city councils and chairmen of tehsil as well as village and neighbourhood councils in the province, but the impugned amendments to the law removed those provisions and declared that the local body heads would exercise and perform such powers and functions as prescribed by the rules.

He said that elections of petitioners and other mayors and chairmen of local councils were conducted under KP Local Government Act (KPLGA), 2013, which defined the mode of local government and powers of elected mayors and chairmen.

The lawyer pointed out that Section 23(A) of KPLGA defined the powers and functions of chairmen of tehsil local government, whereas Section 25(A) provided the powers and functions of mayor, city local government.

He said that the provincial government introduced the KP Local Government (Amendment) Bill in the assembly with mala fide intentions, while the house passed it on June 3, 2022, and it came into force on June 8, 2022.

The counsel argued that the impugned amendments led to the removal of the local body heads’ powers and functions from the law and their mention in the rules.

Meanwhile, coordinator of the Action Council of Local Councils Association Intizaar Ali Khalil told reporters that the government had been dragging its feet on the issue.

“We’re democratic people and believe that Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur will implement the commitments he made to them in a meeting early last month,” he said.

Mr Khalil warned that if the government continued to take the issue lightly, the local body members would be left with no option but to protest outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Prison, where founder of the ruling PTI Imran Khan had been imprisoned.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024