LAHORE, Nov 29: The PML-Q and eight district nazims on Saturday challenged the appointment of commissioners through an amendment, the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008.

The petitioner nazims include Maj Tahir Sadiq (Attock), Javed Ikhlas (Rawalpindi), Chaudhry Shafaat (Gujrat), Abdul Rehman Kanju (Lodhran), Tariq Rasheed Cheema (Bahawalpur), Sardar Ghulam Abbas (Chakwal), Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf (Jhelum), Faisal Mukhtar (Multan).

The petitioners say since the present government has come to power directly or indirectly it is trying to subvert and sabotage the smooth functioning of the district governments. They said district coordination officers (DCOs), who under the law are responsible to assist the smooth administration under the elected representatives, were made to act against the interest of the district government and frustrate development schemes.

The provincial government also resorted to tactics of harassment and blackmailing, and for this purpose initiated a selective and ‘biased’ audit of the district governments, they said.

The petitioners, through Chaudhry Fawad advocate, said the amendment and the subsequent notification were a violation of the Constitution and impliedly repealed the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001. In exercise of the power under the said ordinance the Punjab government had appointed commissioners in respective divisions, creating a new layer of bureaucracy, the lawyer said.

This resulted in creation of a total number of 656 new posts and budget of Rs84.5 million was also approved for this purpose, he said.

The most significant aspect of the Local Government system was a shift from bureaucratic system to a representative system, which was the essence of local government, he added.

He said the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001, was a special law that had been provided protection under Schedule 6 of the Constitution and could not be altered, repealed or amended without the previous sanction of the president of Pakistan.

In the absence of authority to amend the law, the respondent government had come up with a novel idea of impugned legislation, which is a relentless example of colourable exercise of legislation and amounted to implied repeal of Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001, he said.

That the impugned legislative amendments are ultra vires to Article 140-A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, which provides, “Each province shall, by law, establish a Local Government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the Local Governments.”

That as per media reports the newly appointed commissioners have in essence taken over all the district and local government functions. The government of Punjab is issuing circulars and directions in the garb of impugn legislation that in essence and in practical terms has subverted the whole system of local government.The petitioners prayed to the court to declare the amendment and the notification illegal and a violation of the Constitution.