An application has been filed in the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry on Monday requesting an early hearing of the pending petition against the dissolution of Local Government (LG) Ordinance 1979.
Petitioner Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party said the dissolution of the LG Ordinance had been moved to avoid LG elections in 2009 and to bring magistracy and commissioner system to the provinces. The petitioner said with the scrapping of the LG Ordinance, violence and targeted killing in Karachi and Quetta increased significantly. He said suspending the ordinance fanned ethnic conflicts and separatist sentiments as a lack of uniform LG system gave birth to a struggle for getting more benefits for the ethnic, linguistic and regional communities instead of promoting national unity.
He said the move deprived people of the right to set up local governments in terms of Article 9 and 17 of the constitution. He contended further that by the repeal of the ordinance, feudal politics had strengthened and democracy undermined.
He asked the court to decide on the matter pending since July 2009, and schedule an early hearing date, preferably around August 30.
MISSING LAWYERS: Separately, a division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed took notice on Monday of police’s failure to find two lawyers who went missing last month after the police crackdown on Jhang lawyers during a protest.
In a crackdown on Jhang lawyers’ protest against robbery at one of their members’ house, the district police arrested dozens of lawyers and booked 34 of them on charges of terrorism. Later, they were released by the Special Anti-Terrorism Court. The court took suo motu notice upon learning that two lawyers Shahadat Ali and Umar Hayat had gone missing. The police, through the assistant advocate general, told the court that they had no clue regarding the two lawyers. Justice Azmat reprimanded the police officials concerned on professional negligence and allowed them time until August 17 to find the lawyers.
