PESHAWAR: Heads of 22 tehsil councils in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have moved the Peshawar High Court against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision to release development funds to 56 of the total 131 tehsil councils in the province.

In the joint petition, Mardan city mayor Himayatullah Mayar, Dir tehsil council chairman Rafiullah and 20 other tehsil council mayors and chairmen requested the court to declare illegal the finance department’s Dec 5 order for the release of development funds to 56 councils under the Provincial Finance Commission allocation.

The petitioners requested the court to direct the government to ensure that as per the PFC, an impartial release of funds should be held throughout the province including to the petitioners and other remaining tehsil councils.

They also sought interim relief, saying during pendency of the petition, the respondents including the KP government should be restrained from distribution of funds issued through the impugned order.

Petition complains govt has decided to fund 56 of 131 tehsil councils

The government ordered release of funds mostly to tehsil councils, which have the ruling PTI’s members as mayors and chairmen.

The petition, filed through advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai, named the provincial government through its chief secretary and local government and finance secretaries as respondents.

The petitioners said that they were elected as tehsil council mayors and chairmen in elections conducted for local governments, held on Dec 19, 2021, and March 31, 2022.

They added that Article 140-A of the Constitution provided that each province should establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local government.

The petitioners said that Chapter-VIII of the KP Local Government Act, 2013, related to local government finances and particularly, section 30 provided for establishment of local funds in public accounts, whereas section 31 described the operation of funds and public accounts.

They said that the Act further provided for PFC and fiscal transfers and it was an enactment similar to transfer of funds by the federal government to the provinces under the National Finance Commission.

The petitioners claimed that since the elections were held in 2021 and 2022 no funds in respect of PFC and fiscal transfers even had been released for development to tehsil local government.

They added that there were 131 tehsils which had remained deprived of PFC allocation since their elections, but on Dec 5, the impugned order was issued for releasing funds to 56 of the tehsils, whereas remaining 75 had been discriminated against and was not included in the order.

The petitioners contended that as per the PFC, the provincial government was obligated to allocate 20 percent of its share to the local government in any fiscal year.

They, however, complained that the government had been withholding those funds for the last three years, while recently, it, through the impugned order, selected 56 of the councils for funding.

The petitioners contended that the KP City and Tehsil Local Government Rules, 2022, empowered mayors and chairmen to manage affairs of their councils, which also included overseeing development within their respective tehsils.

They added that allocation of funds exclusively to selected tehsils of the provincial government’s choice formed discrimination and violated Articles 4, 9 and 25 of the Constitution.

COMMENTS SOUGHT

The Peshawar High Court on Thursday again sought comments from the provincial government about a set of petitions against amendments to the local government law, especially the provisions related to their powers.

A bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued the order while hearing five almost identical petitions filed by heads of several tehsil councils, including Himayatullah Mayar, Peshawar mayor Haji Zubair, Pabbi tehsil council chairman Ghayur Khattak, and other local body heads.

The petitioners requested the court to declare unconstitutional the KP Local Government (Amendment) Act, which was enacted by the provincial government in 2022.

The bench wondered if the local government’s representatives didn’t have powers, what tasks they would perform.

Babar Khan Yousafzai, Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah and other lawyers for the petitioners, said the KP Local Government Act, 2013, clearly spelled out the powers and functions of mayors of city councils and chairmen of tehsil council as well as village and neighbourhood councils in the province, but the impugned amendments to the law removed those provisions and declared that the local body heads would exercise and perform such powers and functions as prescribed by the rules.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2024