RAWALPINDI, Oct 15: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Wednesday stopped the Punjab government from disbursing the funds approved for 2008-09 budget of Attock district through a notification by the secretary Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD)after it was challenged by District Nazim Tahir Sadiq.

Justice Hamid Ali Shah directed the provincial government to refrain from disbursing the funds till a final decision on the petition, and put off the hearing till October 20.

Making the Punjab government respondent through the LG&CD secretary, district coordination officer (DCO) Attock and executive district officer (EDO) finance and planning, Mr Sadiq through his counsel, Sardar Shahbaz Khosa, had contended that the Punjab government’s two different notifications dated July 31 and August 28, which approved the district budget while bypassing the district council, should be stayed and declared null and void.

In his petition, the nazim maintained that he held two meetings of the district budget committee where all relevant authorities except the DCO were present to formulate the budgetary estimates for the final approval by the district assembly.

The budget session of the district council was called on June 27, but one day before the council meeting the DCO sent a draft budget estimates for the approval.

The budget proposals sent by the DCO were different from that prepared by the committee as the new provincial government increased the non-developmental expenditures and stopped the payment for many schoolteachers hired on contract basis.

The district assembly, however, rejected the budgetary proposals prepared by the DCO and passed the budget prepared by the district budget committee with majority, the petitioner maintained. But the secretary, through the two notifications, passed the amended budget without consulting the district council.

The petitioner said it was the prerogative of the district council to pass the annual budget under the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) that could not be amended through an executive order. He alleged the new provincial government was bent upon eliminating the local government system and was politically victimising its opponents.

He asked the court to declare the notifications of the Punjab government as unlawful and stop the government from disbursing the funds without the prior approval of the district assembly.

Meanwhile, a division bench of the LHC comprising Justice Hamid Ali Shah and Justice M.A. Zafar granted post-conviction bail to a 70-year-old man in a murder case after he was arrested in 2005 and since then had been languishing in the jail.

The court granted bail to Qazi Ibrar Hussain, a resident of Sohawa in Jhelum, after he was convict of murdering his real brother by an additional district and sessions judge on February 14 last year. Ibrar was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sohawa police on July 17, 2005, booked Ibrar and his son Jabbar for killing Qazi Nazeer Hussain by hitting him with bricks. Jabbar was handed down death penalty.

Ibrar has sought the suspension of the sentence, challenging the decision of the trail court. He prayed for bail on the grounds that he was too old to kill anybody with bricks and he was not even accused of hitting the deceased.