PESH AWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday questioned the maintainability of three petitions against certain sections of the KP Local Government Act 2013 and requested the Peshawar High Court to reject them all.

The petitions are filed by provincial parllamentary leader of ANP Sardar Hussain Babak, provincial information secretary of JUI-F Abdul Jalil Jan and Malgary Wakeelan, a lawyers` organisation, through advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi.

Lawyer for the government Qazi Mohammad Anwar told a high court bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaisar that the petitioners were not aggrieved parties in terms of Article 199 of the Constitution and therefore, the petitions were not maintainable and liable to be dismissed.

Mohammad Anwar was accompanied by advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai.

Lawyers Khushdil Khan of ANP, Mohammad Essa Khan of JUI-F and Lateef Afridi of Malgary Wakeelan contended that the petitions were maintainable as their respective clients had challenged important provisions of the KP Local Government Act, which would affect all citizens of the province.

The bench adjourned hearing until today (Wednesday) when lawyers will resume arguments.

Khushdil Khan insisted his client was the parliamentary leader of a political party and under Article 17 of the Constitution, which guaranteed the right to form association, as well as Article 199, he was entitled to file the petition in question.

He said under Section 27(2) of the LGA, elections for the village/neighbourhoodcouncils across the province should be held on non-party basis and those of district and tehsil councils on party-basis.

The lawyer said the holding of polls on non-party basis was a violation of Article 17 and that the court might order to hold it on party basis.

He pointed out that the Lahore High Court had also delivered a judgment under which local bodies elections in Punjab would be held on party-basis whereas earlier the government was holding it on nonparty basis.

The lawyer contended that under the LGA, the councilor on general seat in a village council, who received the maximum votes, would be elected as nazim, whereas the runner-up would be a naib nazim.

He added that the mechanism in question was a discrimination against councilors elected on seats reserved for women, minorities, youth and peasant/workers and that was in violation of Article 25 of the Constitution, which guaranteed equality of citizens.

The bench asked the lawyer that as the schedule of local government elections had already been issued and the process had begun, what implications the acceptance of the petitions could cause.

Lateef Afridi said the court could order the government to bring the LGA in line with the Constitution.

`As the Supreme Court has not given schedulefor the holding oflocalbody polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the court could deliver a judgment and polls could be delayed until Sept,` he said.

The petitioners have also challenged the powers of the chief minister under the LGA saying he`s been enjoying enormous powers, including suspension of district nazim and suspending order made by the nazim and referring the cases to local government commission for further inquiries.

They said the commission was headed by the local government minister and that under such circumstances, a local council couldn`t function independently and would be subservient to the chief minister.