IHC reserves verdict about legal status of Northern Areas Assembly

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court here on Friday reserved its verdict about the legal status of Northern Areas Legislative Assembly (NALA).
The court was apprised that a draft of the proposed amendments had been completed and it would be submitted to the Ministers for Law and Kashmir and Northern Areas for consideration.
Secretary in the Ministry of Kashmir and Northern Areas (KANA) Salman Siddiqui informed the single bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam that the draft had been completed and he would be holding meetings with the Ministers for Law and Kashmir and Northern Areas.
He assured the court that necessary legislation would be completed soon and the Prime Minister had directed to finalise legislation within one month. The bench heard the writ petition filed by Syed Mohammad Ali Shah advocate through Mohammad Ibrahim Shahid advocate, seeking dissolution of NALA.
The petitioner had apprised the court that the former government introduced a constitutional package on October 2007 which was issued by KANA division through a Notification "amendments 2007 LFO-1994" on 15 December 2007.
He said prior to these amendments, the Northern Areas Legislative Assembly was called Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) and it worked under the Ministry of Kashmir and Northern Areas. But after the notification, its whole status had been changed, he said, adding that its members were not even allowed to legislate or authorised to make the budget.
"The erstwhile status of the Council was changed into Assembly while Deputy Chief Executive had been given the full powers of Chief Executive in violation of the rules," he added.
He had contended that members of the defunct Council should also cease to perform their duties as they could not be considered as the members of newly born NALA and their continuation in the new position was against the Constitution. On October 23, 2007 former president Pervez Musharraf had announced new package under which the name of LFO was changed into Northern Areas Governance Ordinance (NAGO).-APP