PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday requested the Peshawar High Court to dismiss the petition against the suspension of the Mardan district nazim and naib nazim by the chief minister insisting it was not maintainable.

In written comments on the petition jointly filed by suspended nazim Himayatullah Mayar and naib nazim Asad Ali, the respondents,including the chief minister through the chief secretary, asserted the petition was not maintainable as under the Constitution, the chief minister was not answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of his functions.

They requested the court to dismiss the petition for being non-maintainable.

A bench consisting of Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth on Tuesday extended the stay order against the suspension of the two petitioners, both from opposition parties, by the chief minister until May 19 and directed the petitioners to submit a rejoinder to the comments filed by the government.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai submitted the comments saying the nazim and naib nazim in collusion with each other had passed the dis-trict budget on Dec 10, 2015, contrary to the law.

He pointed out that before issuance of the impugned order on May 6 the chief minister had fulfilled all the legal requirements.

The nazim and naib nazim have challenged the notification through which they were suspended for 30 days and have requested the court to declare it illegal and unconstitutional.

In its comments, the government said: `The chief minister has been arrayed as respondent No. 1, on this score, too, the writ petition is not maintainable as under Article 248 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, he is not answerable to any Court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions on any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of such powers and performance of functions.

It added that the annual budgetwas not passed in accordance with law astherecordshows thatonthe said date the quorum was not complete and the members required to pass the budget was not in attendance. The government said the record showed that on that day 40 councilors had submitted a complaint that when they reached the venue of the said session at 9:50am, they were informed that the budget had already been passed.

It added that the local government commission in its meeting on Apr 1 received the preliminary inquiry report and that it was decided that a formal inquiry should be conducted against the nazim and naib nazim and they might be suspended for 30 days during the course of that inquiry.

The government said the chief minister was the competent authority to suspend the two petitioners on the recommendation of the local gov-ernment commission.

Khalid Mehmood, lawyer for the petitioners, requested the court to give him time to go through the comments filed by the respondents.

The petitioners have said the district council had unanimously passed the `salary budget` of the devolved district departments on Oct 22, 2015.

They added that in continuation of the budget proceedings, the house later passed the Annual Development Programme on Dec 10 by a simple majority i.e. 59 of the total 112 members. Subsequently, the council unanimously approved the `salary and non-salary budget` for its staff members on Jan 15, 2016.

The petitioners said in compliance with the budget, the district government development committee headed by the district nazim was convened on Feb 16 wherein development schemes were approved.