Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Friday grilled the Secretary Local Government (LG) Punjab over non-restoration of local bodies in the province and sought a report over the matter.

A two-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel heard the contempt of court case against the Punjab government over local government bodies’ failure to resume functions despite a SC judgement.

During the course of proceedings, the counsel for the petitioner said that the provisional government of Punjab did not restore the local bodies despite the court order issued on March 25. Upon this, the Chief Justice asked the Secretary Local Government Punjab what measures were taken by the government to restore the local bodies. Secretary Local Government Noor-Ul-Amin respondent that he needed time to hire a counsel.

Expressing displeasure over the Secretary’s reply, the chief justice said that despite being a local government secretary, the official did not know about the local bodies. He observed that the Secretary did not know his responsibilities. He asked when did the court order the restoration of local bodies?

The petitioner responded that the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of local bodies on March 25, 2021.

The chief justice noted that the tenure of local bodies’ would expire in December this year. He called Mayor Lahore Mubashar Javed to the rostrum and asked what had the local representatives done so far? The Mayor Lahore replied that they called their meetings on the street as per order of the court. He alleged that the Punjab government did not facilitate the workings of local bodies.

He said that the meetings and work of local body representatives had also been covered in the media.

Addressing the Mayor, the chief justice said that the representative of the local bodies were not interested in working on their own.

Go around the world and see how local bodies work, he asked the Mayor and said that if they wanted to work, they would have done it while sitting on the streets.

He said that the local bodies across the country were restored by order of the Supreme Court. Local government representatives were waiting for Manna, he added.

The Mayor said that they did not even have a cleaner then how they could work. The Chief Justice said that if they did not know the job description, they all should sit at homes. He said that the local government officials did not have passion to work.

The Mayor said that the local body representatives were locked out of their offices by the Punjab government officials.

Upon this, the chief justice asked name the people who locked the offices. The local bodies wanted money and staffers to resume work, he added.

Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till Wednesday.