LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday summoned the provincial secretary for local government on petitions by the local bodies’ representatives for the provision of time/period excluded due to suspension of their tenure.

Justice Jawad Hassan summoned the secretary after the government’s law officer failed to give satisfactory answers to several queries by the court. The judge would resume hearing on Thursday (today).

Lord Mayor retired Col Mubashir Javed and other representatives contended in the petitions that they were aggrieved at the illegal dissolution of the local government without following the procedure of the succeeding legislation in 2019 by which they were deprived of representing the electorate for 22 months as well as subsequent seven months.

The petitioners said they had been denied the legitimate expectation to serve the public interest of their constituents, which was not only against the doctrine of democracy but also infringement of their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution.

They asked the court to direct the government to issue a notification in respect of the period the petitioners remained out of their offices. They also urged the court to restrain the government from holding LG elections till expiry of the petitioner’s tenure.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2021