PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the deputy attorney general in a case against the merger of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone with its Punjab Zone.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali also extended interim order against the merger maintaining status quo in the case until next hearing, which will be fixed afterwards.

The Aptma, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone and 10 textile mills had filed the petition against the merger.

During previous hearing on Mar 7, the bench had issued notice to the respondents including federal secretary of commerce and industry, Aptma through its chairman, managing committee of Aptma, regulator of trade organisations (Directorate General Trade Organisations) and deputy director of directorate general.

However, the process issued to them was not received following which the bench decided to issue notice to the deputy attorney general (DAG) for next date.

The petition is filed by Aptma, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone, through its chairman Raza Kuli Khan Khattak and other members of the association.

The petitioners’ counsel, Athar Minallah, contented that the Trade Organisation Act, 2013, was enacted in 2013, and respondent No 4 (regulator of trade organisations) was established and exercising powers under it.

He added that rules were framed by the federal government under Section 31 of the said Act, which was notified on Mar 26, 2013, through a notification.

The counsel stated that Rules 2(1) (k) and 6(1) (n) pertained to restructuring and therein the term “Northern Zone” was defined as Provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal areas. He argued that the said two rules were illegal and without lawful authority and being ultra vires to the Act as well as Constitution of Pakistan.

He stated that the respondents including the government were bent upon to amend the Articles of Memorandum of Aptma as proposed by the deputy director of Directorate General of Trade Organisations.

The lawyer stated that on the direction of the regulator of trade organisations and deputy director the managing committee of Aptma had called an Extraordinary General meeting (EOGM) on Mar 13 to bring certain amendments in the Articles of Memorandum related to merger of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab zones.

He requested the court to declare the impugned rules as well as letters of the deputy director issued on Mar 30, July 15 and Dec 12, 2013, to Aptma for bringing amendments to its articles of memorandum may be set aside and be declared as illegal.

The petitioners stated that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone pertained to a well-defined and constitutionally recognised area, had its own dynamics, problems, solutions and requirements, etc. which were very different from other zones, regions and areas requiring separate and distinct representation in any federal ‘all Pakistan’ association or body.

They stated that by merging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone with Northern Zone, the voice and representation of the province had effectively and practically been silenced.

“Punjab being a big province itself needed to be divided into zones let alone merging other provinces into one zone with it.”

The petitioners stated the re-zoning had been done in the most discriminatory manner as only the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone had been eliminated.