LAHORE, June 6: The district and sessions judge on Friday withdrew the schedule issued earlier by him for the election of District Public Safety Commission on grounds that he did not have the jurisdiction to supervise the process.

Last month, the city district government had requested the judge to issue the election schedule for the PSC’s six members — four men, two women — to be chosen from amongst the City District Government members. The DSJ had issued the election schedule on June 3, fixing Saturday (today) as the last date for the submission of nomination papers while polling was to be held on June 14.

Sources told Dawn that the DSJ had intimated the district Naib Nazim through a letter that the election schedule issued for the district PSC earlier this week was being withdrawn as Lahore, being the provincial capital, was beyond his jurisdiction with regard to supervision of PSC elections.

As mentioned in the letter, the DSJ was only the chairman of PSC’s district panel, while under the prevalent rules, the chief justice of the Lahore High Court was to head the capital city’s PSC. Therefore, the CJ was the appropriate authority for issuing the election schedule. The district government has been asked by the DSJ to move the CJ for a new election schedule.

An official working in the DSJ office told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that among the applicants, outsiders had outnumbered district government members and included a number of lawyers practising at subordinate courts. According to him, every non-member had been arguing that he was eligible to contest the PSC election. The DSJ had to finally consult the relevant provisions and withdraw the election schedule.