PHC suspends annulment of Mardan district council budget

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday suspended the Local Government Commission’s notification declaring the annual budget of Mardan District Council for the year 2015-16 as void.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali stopped the Local Government Commission from implementation of the notification that declared the district government’s annual budget for 2015-16 as void till next order of the court.

The court issued these directives in an application of the District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar and Naib Nazim Asad Ali, belonging to Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party, respectively, against the provincial Local Government Commission notification issued on July 25.

During the hearing, the applicants’ lawyer Khalid Mehmood submitted before the bench that the KP Local Government Commission first issued show-cause notice to Mardan district nazim and naib nazim for alleged misconduct in passing the annual budget.

The lawyer submitted that the petitioners then challenged the show-cause notice in the high court as it was issued without fulfilling proper and legal procedure and was based on political victimisation.

Lawyer Khalid Mehmood pointed out that he had raised this issue that the KP Local Government Commission was going to declare the district government Mardan’s annual budget as void and had requested the court to restrain the commission from any such order as all the development schemes under the approved budget is in final stage of its completion. However, the court did not pass any restraining order after the additional advocate general’s statement that no such order is being issued.

The lawyer recalled during the course of hearing Justice Nisar Hussain questioned as to why all actions are being taken against these nazims. Justice Musarrat Hilali also questioned what would be the fate of such actions as it would open the “Pandora’s Box.”

However, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Waqar Ahmad said it would not open the “Pandora’s Box” as the actions are the result of the wrongdoings of the nazims to pass the budget in violation of the rules and procedure.   

The AAG argued that the application is not maintainable as the petitioners did not mention the cancelation of the budget in the writ petition. He said that for this purpose they had to challenge the notification or amend the writ petition. 

Khaild Mehmood pointed out that the impugned show-cause notice was issued to his clients on the basis of political victimisation. He noted that in the show-cause notice issued on July 11 this year, both the petitioners were asked to submit written reply within seven days. He added the two were told they had committed misconduct and should show cause as to why they must not be removed from office.

He said the high court had fixed August 3 for hearing of the writ petition filed against the show-cause notice to the nazims, but the provincial government did not submit its reply.

The petitioners’ lawyer stated that earlier on May 6, 2016 the petitioners were suspended by the KP chief minister for a period of 30 days on the ground that they had not passed the annual budget in accordance with the law.

He mentioned that the high court on May 24 allowed an earlier writ petition of the petitioners against their suspension by the chief minister and this judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court. He added that the KP Local Government Commission issued the impugned show-cause notice to the petitioners for removing them from office.

The lawyer added that in the show-cause notice the same charges were levelled against the petitioners on the basis of which they were suspended earlier by the chief minister. The show-cause notice alleged that bogus signatures of three members of the District Council were put on the attendance sheet on December 10, 2015  - the day the budget was passed. It stated that the budget was not passed by majority of the total members of the council.