LAHORE: Justice Atir Mahmood of the Lahore High Court (LHC) after conclusion of arguments on Wednesday reserved the verdict on petitions challenging eligibility of Khawaja Ahmad Hassan as UC-107 chairman.
Petitioner counsel Sheraz said that Kh Hassan was elected Union Council (UC)-107 chairman, but he heading official meetings for which only the Lahore mayor was authorised. He submitted that a petition against election of Kh Hassan was pending and he was holding meetings as the mayor.
He said that Hassan was not eligible to hold the office of union council chairman and to contest election for city mayor as he had resigned from his offices at different statutory bodies just one day before filing of the nomination papers for local government election. He submitted that Hassan was serving as Lahore Development Authority (LDA) vice chairman and chairman of Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore Metro Bus Authority and Orange Line Metro Train Authority before going for the election.
He pointed out that disqualification mentioned in Section 27 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 stated: “If a person is in service of a statutory body whether the function is an office of profit or not, he still cannot contest elections unless a period of two years elapsed after leaving the office.”
Counsel for the Punjab government said that the positions previously held by his client were honorary in nature and did not put any bar in terms of vying for election. He said that the petition was misconceived and should be dismissed.
