LAHORE, Nov 7: The Lahore High Court has declared that holding local government elections in Punjab on non-party basis will be a violation of the constitution and set aside Section 18 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013.

The PTI, PPP, PML-Q, Lawyers Foundation for Justice, Majlis-i-Wahdat-iMuslimeen and others had filed petitions challenging the non-party elections and the Punjab government`s jurisdiction to carry out delimitation of LG constituencies.

A special division bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan announced the judgment on Thursday in the presence of petitioners` counsel and the law officer of the government.

The bench had reserved the verdict on Nov 1.

The court rejected the petitioners` argument about the delimitation process and observed that the duty of the Election Commission was to hold elections and not to carry out delimitation. The process had to be carried out by the provinces and, therefore, no constitutional mandate had been violated by the Punjab government.

About the elections on nonparty basis, the court observed that local governments derived their status from Articles 7, 32 and 140-A of the Constitution and while these provisions allowed provincial legislation on the local government system, these imposed checks on the power of the provincial legislature to guide such legislation.

`The constitution commands to devolve political responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of local governments.

Political responsibility and authority is exercised by the elected representatives of local governments by applying their political values and principles,` the court said.

It maintained that denial of political identity of a candi- date for an LG office by Section 18 of the PLGA negated the obligation of the province under Article 140-A of the Constitution to devolve political authority and responsibility to the elected representatives of local governments.

`Consequently, the nonparty based, non-political election to local governments depriving candidates of their political identity is also inconsistent with the mandate of Article 140-A (1) of the Constitution,` the court observed.

The court also ruled that for the elected representatives of local governments to exercise political authority and to assume political responsibility as directed by Article 140-A (1) of the Constitution, it was necessary for them to nurture political values and principles that guided their execu-tive decision making.

It held that the participation of elected representatives in the indirect election involved the exercise of a political choice and such choice could be exercised fairly, prudently and transparently if the electors were imbued with a defined political vision, principles and values.

The court said Section 18 of the PLGA was inconsistent with the fundamental right of citizens under Article 17(2) of the Constitution and political parties to contest elections to the public posts in the local governments.

Therefore, it said, the elections on non-party basis were inconsistent with the command in Article 140A (1) of the Constitution.

The Punjab government had opposed the petitions on the ground that Article 17(2) of the Constitution did not apply to the establishment of local governments.