PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday extended the stay order against the suspension of Mardan district nazim and naib nazim, both from the opposition, by the chief minister until May 17 and directed the provincial government to produce the relevant records in two days.

A bench consisting of Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Qaisar Rasheed Khan directed provincial advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai to produce the records, including the forensic examination of the district council members’ signatures that the government claimed were forged.

On May 11, the bench had issued a stay order against the chief minister’s May 6 notification for the suspension of district nazim Himayatullah Mayar of the ANP and naib nazim Asad Ali of the PPP for 30 days over their failure to get the budget passed by the district council with a simple majority.

The nazim and naib nazim filed a joint petition against the notification and requested the court to declare it illegal and unconstitutional.

PHC gives govt two days to produce relevant records

Advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai defended the order of the chief minister arguing that all legal requirements were fulfilled before the issuance of the notification.

He said the petitioners had passed the budget in an illegal manner as on that particular day, most district council members were absent and the petitioners had put forged signatures of the members on their attendance documents.

Mr. Yousafzai said under Section 35 of the KP Local Government Act, the budget of a local government should be approved by a simple majority in the respective council.

He added that while passing the budget on Dec 12, the petitioners didn’t follow that legal requirement.

The advocate general said several of the members had lodged complaints with the Local Government Commission alleging that they were not present in the meeting and their forged signatures were put on the attendance sheet.

He said after receiving numerous complaints, the provincial government had conducted forensic examination of signatures proving that their allegations were correct.

The bench directed the AG to produce all those documents, including the forensic examination report.

The lawyer for petitioners, Khalid Mehmood, said after his clients took oath of their offices, the district council unanimously passed the ‘salary budget’ of the devolved district departments on Oct 22, 2015.

He said in continuation of the budget proceedings, the house later passed the Annual Development Programme on Dec 10 by a simple majority i.e. 59 of the total 112 members.

The lawyer said the council unanimously approved the ‘salary and non-salary budget’ for its staff members on Jan 15, 2016.

He said in compliance with the budget, the district government development committee headed by the district nazim was convened on Feb 16 wherein development schemes were approved.

Khalid Mehmood said that district council unanimously approved certain guidelines in light of the budget on May 3 proving that there was no ambiguity about the passage of the budget by a majority of members.

He said there was no provision in the KP Local Government Act for the suspension of district nazim and naib nazim over the failure to pass the budget.

The lawyer said the records didn’t show that the budget was not passed by majority of the members of the district council.

Khalid Mehmood said the impugned notification had paralysed the Mardan district government and thus, hurting public interest.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2016