The MQM filed a petition stating that the constitution provided safeguards to the local government system which could therefore not be abolished.

Earlier on Friday, Moulvi Iqbal Haider, the chairman of Awami Himayat Tehrik Pakistan, had filed a petition in the SHC challenging the system’s revival.

Haider’s petition had stated that in the light of the Constitution’s Article 140, provincial assemblies did not have the power to abolish the local government system.

Provincial assemblies do not have the power to abolish the said system as the local government ordinance was enforced after approval from the parliament, the petition stated.