PESHAWAR, Nov 26: Awami National Party is preparing a petition to challenge holding of local bodies` elections at village council and neighbourhood level on nonparty basis.

Advocate Khushdil Khan, former deputy speaker of the provincial assembly, told Dawn that a four-member committee of ANP, headed by him, was preparing a petition to challenge relevant clause of the Local Government Act, 2013 regarding non-party elections at grassroots level (village council in rural and neighbourhood in urban areas).

ANP and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F had opposed the Local Government Bill, 2013 when it was tabled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, arguing that elections on nonparty basis at union council and neighbourhood level would encourage horse-trading at grassroots level.

ANP has been filing petitions in Peshawar High Court on different issues. It had earlier challenged the dual office of the provincial assembly speaker, who is also provincial president of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The party has recently filed another petition in PHC, challenging appointment of six special assistants and five advisers to chief minister.

ANP is also planning to challenge the appointment of parliamentary secretaries.

Initially, 32 parliamentary secretaries were appointed by the provincial government. However, later the government claimed that only 10 parliamentary secretaries were working as others had resigned.

The government has notified perks andprivileges for the parliamentary secretaries.

Khushdil Khan said that Dec 4 was fixed for first hearing for the petition. However, he said, they would soon file the petition of holding local government elections on nonparty basis at village council and neighbourhood level.

He said that different laws for local governments were enacted in 1979, 2001 and 2012 but the union council was kept intact.

However, the LG Act 2013 came up with the idea of village council and neighbourhood.

The delimitation to create village councils would create confusion for the voters, he said.

ANP leader Bushra Gohar, also a former MNA, said that government claimed that elections at grassroots level would be held on party basis and women would be given representation. The representation of women at village council level would be affected, she added.

`Everyone has a right to get associated with a political party. However, holding elections on non-party basis will deprive people of this right so it should be challenged,` said Ms Gohar.

She said that elected members at village council level would associate themselves with the political parties af ter elections so it would open way for horse-trading at grassrootslevel.

Arshad Haroon, associated with an organisation working for women`s political rights and awareness, said that civil society would propose to the government to hold elections at village council level on party basis as it would create political awareness at grassrootslevel.

`It would not create division rather it would help to strengthen political awareness at grassroots level,` he said.