PESHAWAR, Mar 08 (APP): The Peshawar High Court (PHC) here Wednesday suspended notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and restored Local Government (LG) representatives in the province.
After hearing the arguments and examining the facts of the case, the two-member PHC bench comprising Justice Rohul Amin and Justice Arshad Ali announced the verdict.
During the course of proceedings, the Deputy Attorney General informed the court that the ECP had the powers to suspend local government representatives in the province, in order to ensure transparent and free election of the provincial assembly.
He argued that this was not the first time that ECP had suspended local government representatives as the same had happened during the 2018 elections.
On February 3, the ECP had suspended all local government functionaries in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa till the announcement of the election results of both provincial assemblies.
The ECP had stated that it wanted to ensure that the general election of the provincial assemblies were held in an “honest, just and fair” manner, and to prevent any action on the part of the local government institutions that amounts to influence the results of upcoming general election by depriving candidates from having a level playing field.
On February 10, a PTI tehsil council chairman moved the Peshawar High Court challenging the ECP’s order.
In the petition, Mohammad Ishaq Khan Khattak, who heads the Nowshera tehsil council and is the son of former federal minister Pervez Khattak, requested the court to set aside the February 3 ECP notification.
