Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of Lahore High Court on Monday reserved verdict on maintainability of a petition challenging the ban on participation of local government representatives in political activities of upcoming general elections. A number of chairmen and vice chairmen from different union councils had challenged the impugned ban imposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The petitioners counsel said that the ECP had barred the participation of local government representatives in election campaign under section 233 of Election Act 2017. He said that the ECP put the impugned ban through a simple notification which was violation of Political Parties Act 2017, adding that it was also violation of the fundamental rights as no one could be restraint from participating in the political process. He requested to set aside the ban for being unconstitutional. The judge after hearing the preliminary arguments reserved the verdict on the maintainability of the petition. Published in Daily Times, July 10th 2018.