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Deputy Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Muhammad Moeenuddin Riaz. Photo: SCREEN
LAHORE:
Opposition PTI legislators in the Punjab Assembly filed a petition before the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday, challenging multiple provisions of the recently enacted Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2025 as violative of the Constitution.
The petition, filed by opposition leader Moeenuddin Riaz, Hafiz Farhat Abbas and Ali Imtiaz, argues that the legislation, passed last month amid fierce opposition protests, undermines the autonomy of local governments.
The Punjab government has been named as a respondent in the case, which will be heard by Justice Sultan Tanvir, according to the petitioners’ lawyer, Abuzar Salman Niazi.
The reason maintains that articles 15, 32, 25, 40, 55, 56 and 57 of the PLGA 2025 are “unconstitutional, unreasonable [and] illegitimate”, alleging that they “blatantly and patently contravene” articles 8, 9, 17, 32 and 140-A of the Constitution, relating to fundamental rights, freedom of association, the promotion of local government institutions and the constitutional rank of local bodies.
According to the petition, “a close reading of the PLGA, 2025, makes it abundantly clear that it is a restrictive law intended to curtail and limit the powers of elected representatives of local governments.”
Opposition AMPs argue that the Act, instead of granting powers to local bodies, consolidates authority in the provincial executive and violates the spirit of devolution envisaged in Article 140-A.
