SC likely to hear contempt plea against Punjab govt

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is likely to take up on May 28 a contempt petition against the Punjab government for not implementing its March 25 order to restore the local government institutions in the province since their dissolution by the provincial government had been found to be unconstitutional.

The contempt petition will be taken up by a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

The bench may also take up a review petition filed by the Punjab government on Friday, seeking annulment of the March 25 order.

Moved by 15 chairmen of different zila councils and mayors, the petition has made the Punjab chief secretary as well as the secretary of the Local Government and Community Development Department Lahore, Noorul Amin Mengal, respondents in the case.

Delay in restoration of local governments in province

The petition pleaded that the respondent government under the Constitution was duty-bound to entrust the transition of powers smoothly and without any interruption to the petitioners and other members of the local governments.

However, it said, the government was taking all it could to hamper the petitioners from taking charge of their offices and exercise powers conferred upon them under the law.

The petition regretted that the petitioners were not being allowed to take control of their offices and being hampered to take charge of the work and most evidently the provincial government was still exercising control over the local governments through administrators appointed under a May 4, 2019 notification.

Though the 2019 notification has lost its effect after the March 25 Supreme Court order, yet the Punjab government has let the notification to hold the field and has thus become guilty of committing contempt of the court under Article 204 of the Constitution, the petition argued.