PESHAWAR, Aug 12: A lawyer has challenged the establishment of the Nifaz-i-Shariat Council by the NWFP government and requested the Peshawar High Court to declare it as unconstitutional and illegal.

In a writ petition filed in the high court on Thursday, Mr Muazzam Butt, the lawyer, said the council was a burden on the exchequer. The petitioner, who is affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League, urged the court to declare the handing over of the government property, including the commissioner's house, to the council as illegal.

He said the council was a body of people affiliated with the ruling Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. He said that the affairs of the NWFP government were being conducted in accordance with the guidance provided by the Shariat council and added that since the formation of the council millions had been spent on its affairs and the government property had been put to its use without any legal sanction.

The petitioner pointed out that in presence of the Council of Islamic Ideology, the Shariat council had been formed as a parallel body. The Shariat council, he said, had neither been created under the constitution nor had it been composed under an act of the parliament.

He has named the Shariat council, the provincial government through the chief secretary and the federation of Pakistan through the law secretary as respondents in the petition.