Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday rejected a petition as not maintainable challenging the ban on participation of local government representatives in political activities of upcoming general election. The court had earlier reserved the decision in maintainability of the petition after preliminary arguments on June 9. A number of chairmen and vice chairmen from different union councils had challenged the ban imposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The counsel for petitioners contended that the ECP had barred local government representatives from participating in election campaigns under section 233 of Election Act 2017. He said that the ECP had enforced the ban through a simple notification, which was violation of Political Parties Act (Amended) 2017. He said that it was also a violation of the fundamental rights as no one could be restricted from participating in the political process. He requested the court to set aside the ban for being “unconstitutional”. Published in Daily Times, July 11th 2018.