ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: An order of the Lahore High Court’s about holding local government elections in Punjab on party basis was challenged in the Supreme Court on Friday.

A petition filed by Advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddique on behalf of Shabbir Asmail, a lawyer from Lahore, requested the apex court to set aside the Nov 1 LHC verdict which had held Section 18a of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, inconsistent with fundamental rights under Article 17(2) of the Constitution. In plain words, the order means that elections to the offices of local governments held on non-party basis are against the command of Article 140A(1) of the Constitution.

“The local government institutions are statutory bodies performing purely executive functions and are not constitutionally mandated to undertake the business of legislation that requires the pursuance of political ideologies. Since the main focus of all local government activities is developmental work and infrastructural activity which is executive in nature, the elections should be mandated to be held on non-party basis,” the petitioner argued.

The petition named as respondents Mian Manzoor Ahmed Watoo, PPP’s Punjab president on whose application the LHC had issued the judgment, the chief minister of Punjab, the provincial assembly through its speaker, local government secretary and the Election Commission of Pakistan.