PESHAWAR, March 1: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday accepted a writ petition filed by the Charssada district nazim and set aside the NWFP Local Government Commission’s order to freeze the presidential grant of Rs100 million and execution of development work in the district.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem, ruled that the commission had no authority to freeze funds allocated by the federal government.

The petition was filed by the district nazim, Naseer Muhammad Khan, stating that the commission had acted in an illegal manner by ordering the freezing of funds announced by the President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The bench also disposed of another writ petition filed by nazims of 23 union councils, challenging the execution of development schemes in their respective union councils through the citizen community boards by the district government.

The nazims, Wasifullah Khan and 22 others, decided to withdraw their petition as the district nazim claimed that they had distributed the grant equally among the 49 union councils of Charssada district.

The provincial Local Government Commission had frozen the funds after receiving complaint from 23 nazims about improper utilisation of funds.

Qazi Mohammad Anwer, who appeared on behald of Naseer Mohammad Khan, contended that the commission was not empowered to freeze the federal grant.

He argued that development works through the CCBs had been carried out in accordance with the mechanism provided in a resolution passed by the district council, adding that only the chief executive of the province could set aside that resolution.

Mr Anwer argued that the provincial commission order had no legal effect as the district government had already distributed the money among the 49 union councils. He contended that the fund could not be distributed among individuals as there was a possibility of its being misused and because of same reason the projects had been executed through CCBs.

Additional Advocate-General Khushdil Khan conceded that the commission had erred in freezing the grant, adding that the commission had taken the decision after receiving complaint from the union nazims.