PESHAWAR: Two Jamaat-iIslami lawmakers on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court against the drastic changes made by the provincial government to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, through legislation claiming that the amendments violate different provisions of the Constitution.

In a joint petition, JI provincial chief and Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and MPA and former senior minister Enayatullah Khan requested the court to declare theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, `in conflict to the Constitution` They claimed that those amendments were made to devolve some powers of district councils and district nazims to the tehsil governments and return the rest to the provincial government.

The petitioners said the amended law was meant to return the control of many devolved departments to the government and abolish the district tier of the LG system.

The respondents in the petition are the provincial government through its chief secretary and secretaries of the KP Assembly, local government and rural development department, and law department.

The two lawmakers, who filedthe petition through senior lawyer Ghulam Mohyuddin Malik, said the provincial assembly had passed the KP Local G overnment Act, 2013, to regulate the local government institution.

They said Article 37(1) of the Constitution required the decentralisation of the government administration to facilitate speedy disposal of its business to meet the convenience and requirement of the people.

The petitioners said Article 140 of the Constitution provided for the establishment of LG system and devolution of political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of local government.

They said the KP Assembly had passed the KP Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, on May 29 introducingdrastic changes to the original law, KP Local Government Act (KPLGA), 2013.

The petitioners said the new LG system provided for the abolition of district councils and consisted of tehsil as well as village and neighbourhood councils.

They said the provincial government had decided to abolish the district government though it was the most effective tier of the LG system and that it is uncertain who would be the administrative head of the 20 devolved departments headed by the district nazim.

The petitioners said the abolition of the district government was a violation of Articles 140-A and 37(1) of the Constitution.

They claimed the Act in question was meant to give sweeping powers to bureaucracy by remov-ing the district tier and return control of more than 10 devolved departments at the district level to the provincial government.

The petitioners said 24 departments were devolved to the district governments from the provincial government through the KPLGA but later, the control of six departments was given to the provincial government through amendments to the law leaving only 18 departments with the district government.

They added that after the enforcement of the Act, the control of 10 more departments would be taken over by the provincial government.

The petitioners said in the new system, the chairman of the tehsil council would represent a political party, while the council members would be elected on a non-party basis.