PHC puts KP govt on notice over proposed changes to LG system

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday put on notice the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in a writ petition filed by two Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) lawmakers challenging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Act 2019 wherein the government has brought about drastic changes, including control of many devolved departments and abolition of the district tier.

A division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Lal Jan Khattak also issued notice to Advocate General, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seeking his legal assistance regarding the changes brought by the provincial government to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013.

JI provincial head Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and MPA Inayatullah Khan filed the petition. They argued that the amendments were made to devolve some powers of district councils and district nazims to the tehsil governments and return the rest to the provincial government, which is in violation of the constitution.

During arguments, counsel for the petitioners, Ghulam Mohyuddin Malik submitted that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly through KP LG (Amendment) Act, 2019 has brought drastic changes to the LG Act 2013.

Through the amendment, he explained, the provincial government returned the control of many devolved departments to the government and abolished the district tier of the LG system.

He argued that the new system consists of tehsils as well as village and neighbourhood councils after the abolition of the district councils. The lawyer argued that the Tehsil and City Councils, under the amended law, would be granted additional financial and administrative powers to impose a penalty at a large scale.

He submitted that the provincial government in a major policy shift decided to abolish the district government, the most effective tier of the existing local government system. He pointed out that it is uncertain as to who would be the administrative head of the 20 devolved departments headed by the District Nazim under the KP LG Act 2013.

"It is also very fatal change in the system under the newly adopted act that Tehsil Mayor would be elected directly by the masses, while under LG Act 2013, the tehsil councilors used to elect tehsil nazim," the lawyer added.

He submitted that abolition of the district government is a direct violation of Article 140-A of the constitution and is meant to give sweeping powers to the bureaucracy by removing the district tier of the Local Government System and return the control of over 10 devolved departments at the district level to the government.

He submitted that the purpose of the impugned amendment is to give the powers of the district council and district nazim to the tehsil government while the remaining powers would be given to the provincial government.

In the petition, the JI lawmakers submitted that the erstwhile KP LG Act 2013 had devolved 24 departments to the District Government from the provincial government. However, they said the provincial government kept interfering in the affairs of the District Government and the control of six departments was given to the provincial government by amending the law on different occasions. They noted that it left the District Government with 18 departments during the previous tenure of the PTI government.