KARACHI, Feb 7: The relieved nazims and deputy nazims could not have been retained after bifurcation of their districts, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan argued before a Sindh High Court division bench , comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Zia Pervez on Monday.

He said there was no specific provision in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) to deal with the situation created by the division of old districts and creation of new ones and the provincial government acted under its general powers. The outgoing nazims and deputy nazims could not have been given officiating assignments as that would have disqualified them from seeking re-election.

They could not, the AG maintained, have been asked to seek a fresh mandate from the same electorate as it had ceased to exist after the bifurcation. The nazim and deputy nazim contested polls as a team and could not be superimposed on a new district. There was no vacancy and the offices just ceased to exist. The only course open to the government was to request the chief election commissioner to arrange new elections in all eight newly-created districts and it acted accordingly. The district co-ordination officers, who were already part of the district governments, were asked to assume charge pending fresh elections, he said.

Representing the petitioners, Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada said bureaucrats were ruling the roost in the four bifurcated districts. There was no bifurcation for them as they retained charge of the undivided old districts, he submitted.

The petition has been moved by the nazims of Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas to challenge their removal and seek restoration. They moved a joint petition through Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi,saying that the law guaranteed them security of tenure that could not be curtailed except by internal or external recall.

The notification purporting to relieve them had been issued under Section 186 (2) of the SLGO, which empowered the provincial government to act only when a local government was not validly constituted due to a natural calamity or conditions beyond human control.

The AG cited a 1970 Dhaka High Court judgment declaring that a union council chairman was rightly relieved despite a fixed term following its bifurcation.

The special bench, which took up the petition during the winter vacation, will assemble on Tuesday afternoon to resume proceedings after its members had concluded hearing of cases as members of separate regular benches.

REMANDED: Justice Amir Hani Muslim of High Court of Sindh, who is also Administrative Judge for Anti-Terrorism Courts in Karachi, on Monday remanded an accused to judicial custody till Feb 14 while entrusting the case trial to ATC-I, headed by judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi, adds APP.