A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday requesting court orders directing the Punjab government to conduct local government (LG) elections in the province and cancel appointment of administrators working in place of elected representatives. The petition was filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Inqilab, through it chairman Ilmdin Ghazi, submitting that the Punjab government was committing a violation of Article 32 of the constitution by not holding LG polls and running the district government system by administrators.
The Punjab government, through the chief secretary, ministry of local governments, through the local bodies secretary and the provincial election commission have been made respondents in the petition. He said that administrators were causing deprivation and democratic alienation among voters and the masses were facing a multitude of miseries and problems in their respective constituencies. Ghazi said that when elected governments were in place in provincial assemblies, people at the grass-root level were left to the mercy of commissioners and DCOs to whom ordinary citizens did not have any access.
The petitioner said that frustration and disappointment was on the rise in the masses in absence of nazims and their elected representatives. He said that the masses have to approach MNAs and MPAs for solving their day-to-day problems but they were difficult to be located due to their legislative responsibilities. The petitioner accused the Punjab government of protecting its vested interests by not holding LG polls.
