PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday temporarily reinstated local bodies across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by issuing a stay order against the Feb 3 notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan to suspend tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils until the holding of the provincial assembly elections.

It also served notices on the attorney-general for Pakistan and provincial advocate-general seeking their response to the petitions, which challenged the ECP move to stop all elected local government “functionaries” from exercising their respective powers and functions until the PA elections were held in the province.

The hearing was later adjourned by a bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim until March 2.

The petitioners, including mayor of the Mardan city council Himayatullah Mayar and chairman of the Nowshera tehsil council Ishaq Khan Khattak, had moved the court against the Feb 3 ECP notification and sought an interim relief in the form of a stay order against the suspension of local bodies until the disposal of their petitions.

The ECP filed comments on the matter saying Article 218 of the Constitution grants it the responsibility to make necessary arrangements to ensure the holding of elections in an “honest, just and fair manner and in accordance with the law.”

Stays ECP move to suspend councils, seeks federal, KP govts’ response to petitions on matter

Counsel for the ECP Mohsin Kamran Siddique contended that the ECP decided to suspend local government functionaries for holding free election of the provincial assembly by ensuring that they don’t influence the electoral exercise.

Lawyers for the petitioners Babar Khan Yousafzai, Nomanul Haq Kakakhel and Malik Shahbaz Khan said that local bodies were established under Article 140-A of the Constitution, so their suspension by the ECP amounted to suspending that constitutional provision.

They said that their clients and other elected representatives of people were performing their respective duties and responsibilities with great zeal when the ECP, all of a sudden, issued the impugned notification on Feb 3 declaring that the powers and functions of all elected local government functionaries had been suspended until the announcement of the results of general elections to the provincial assemblies of KP and Punjab.

The counsel contended that the notification in question was illegal and beyond the powers of the ECP.

They argued that Article 140A(2) of the Constitution bound the ECP to hold the elections of local bodies in terms of Article 140-A(1) read with the Elections Act and rules made under it.

The lawyers said that under Article 218(3) of the Constitution, the ECP had the duty to organise and conduct elections without paralysing the rights of people to representation at local levels.

They challenged the ECP’s contention that free and fair elections of a provincial assembly could not be held without suspending local bodies

that comprised the people’s elected representatives, and insisted that by that logic, the federal government should also be suspended as it, too, could use its powers and resources to influence the outcome of the provincial assembly elections.

The counsel wondered if free and fair local body elections could be held in the presence

of provincial governments, why it was not possible for other polls.

Our correspondent from Swat adds: A Peshawar High Court division bench in Swat district adjourned hearing into a petition against the suspension of local bodies following the issuance of a stay order against the relevant ECP order by the high court’s principal seat in Peshawar.

Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan fixed March 7for next hearing into a petition of Mingora city mayor Shahid Khan, who took the ECP to the court for “overstepping” its powers by suspending local bodies in the province.

Advocate Aurangzeb appeared for the petitioner.

ECP law officer Rizwan Khan, who also turned up, contended that a bench of the high court at the principal seat Peshawar, too, was hearing identical petitions and ECP counsel Mohsin Kamran was busy with those proceedings.

He later updated the division bench about the suspension of the Feb 3 ECP notification by a bench of the high court’s principal seat prompting the bench, too, to follow suit and restore local bodies.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2023