Provincial govts least interested in holding LG polls

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD - Over a dozen cases challenging procrastination in Local Government elections, filed under Article 199 of the Constitution, have been pending with higher courts of the country since long, but the provincial governments don’t seem to be serious in holding of the LG elections at some early date.
Expressing grave concerns over the undue delay in taking up of these cases and terming it a clear violation of the National Judicial Policy, the legal and constitutional experts said that under the National Judicial Policy writ petitions filed under Article 199 of the Constitution should be fixed for the initial hearing (Katchi Peshi) on the next day of institution of the writ and be disposed of as quickly as possible. The petitioners say that they have been awaiting judgments on their cases for the last many months but not even an initial hearing of these cases was fixed. Delay in holding of local government polls is not only the violation of Article 140-A of the Constitution but is also against the democratic norms, they added.
A petition seeking withdrawal of judicial powers entrusted to executive officers and another challenging the efforts of provinces to repeal their respective Local Government Ordinances 2001 had been filed by former NRB Chairman Daniyal Aziz in the Supreme Court on July 22 and 24, 2009 respectively. However, no date has been fixed so far. An identical petition challenging the vires of Regulation 7 of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation Malakand entrusting judicial function upon executive officers had been filed in Peshawar High Court on November 10, 2009 by ex-Zila Nazim Haripur Yousaf Ayub. The court on November 11 directed the respondents to file a report on the alleged violation of constitutional provisions as well as dictum of Supreme Court within a fortnight but the same has not been submitted so far. Later, the case was fixed before the court on March 11, 2010 but the hearing was adjourned and the next date is still awaited.