PHC sets aside CM’s notification of Mardan nazim, deputy suspension

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday suspended the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s notification that suspended the District Nazim amd Naib Nazim Mardan for failing to pass the District Government’s budget as laid down by the rules.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan suspended the notification of suspension of District Nazim Mardan Himayatullah Mayar, who belongs to the Awami National Party (ANP) and Naib Nazim Asad Ali affiliated to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The bench issued notices to the chief minister through chief secretary, Local Government Commission through chairman, provincial government through secretary Local Government Department and director general of the Local Government and Rural Development Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and directed them to submit replies in the petition today.

The chief minister had on May 6 suspended both the nazims for 30 days for not passing the budget of the Mardan District Council with a simple majority. The district nazim and naib nazim had challenged their suspension in the high court through lawyer, Khalid Mehmood.

The petitioners claimed that the budget was passed by a majority, but the chief minister due to ulterior motives wrongly and illegally issued the impugned notification.  They said the notification affected the function of the District Government Mardan and it was against public interest and the spirit of the Local Government Act. 

The petitioners’ lawyer submitted that the District Council Mardan unanimously passed the budget for the salaries on October 22, 2015 soon after oath-taking.He said the Annual Development Programme (ADP) was passed on December 10, 2015 by a simple majority of 59 members of the District Council out of the total 112.

Later, he said the salary and non-salary budget of the District Council staff was also unanimously approved on January 15.The lawyer informed the bench that the ADP for 2015-16 in the light of approved budget was subsequently passed by the majority of the members of the District Council on January 25. He said in compliance with the budget, District Government Development Committee headed by the district nazim was convened on February 16 wherein schemes were approved.

He argued that in light of the budget, the approved schemes were passed by overwhelming majority of the members, including those from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami, who submitted their respective projects and filled the identification forms of development schemes.

The counsel submitted that the District Council on May 3 approved the guidelines for the budget that suggested that there was no ambiguity about the passing of the budget by majority of the members of the District Council. It was stated in the petition that the chief minister before issuing the suspension notification ignored the record of the budget proceedings maintained by the secretary of the District Council.

The petition stated that there was no provision in the KP Local Government Act for suspension of the district nazim and naib nazim. It said the petitioners were not communicated any sort of charge-sheet of violation of the KP Local Government Act.The petitioners prayed the court to declare the notification as void and allow the petitioners to run their offices. The court will continue hearing the case today.