LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench on Tuesday allowed another opportunity to the provincial government to submit its reply to a set of petitions challenging Punjab Local Government Act 2019 and dissolution of previous system before expiry of its constitutional term.
Lahore’s former lord mayor Col (retd) Mubashir Javed, nine deputy mayors of Lahore, former chairman district council of Narowal Ahmad Iqbal, son of former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, and others filed the petitions.
On last hearing, a single bench had directed the government to submit its reply to the petitions and referred the matter to the chief justice with a request to constitute a full bench to decide important legal questions raised by the petitioners.
Therefore, at the outset of the Tuesday’s hearing, the full bench headed by Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh expressed its displeasure that the government had not submitted its reply despite the lapse of considerable time.
A government law officer told the bench that since filing of the first set of petitions, the advocate general office had been flooded by a number of similar petitions assailing the PLGA-2019. He sought more time from the court to file the government's reply to all the petitions, which was granted.
The counsel for the petitioners argued that the dissolution of elected local governments in mid-tenure was against Article 140-A of the Constitution which has provided a constitutional footing to local governments.
The lawyers pressed the court to stay the implementation of the new law, however, the bench observed that it would decide the stay applications after reviewing the government's reply. The bench adjourned further hearing till June 24.
