Election commission’s secretary summoned over defiance

KARACHI:

While hearing the implementation of Karachi violence suo motu case on Monday, the Supreme Court also expressed annoyance over delays in delimitation of constituencies in Karachi as ordered. The bench has summoned the election commission secretary to explain the reasons for not following the order.

In its detailed judgment, the apex court had recommended the delimitation of constituencies to split the influence of ethnic and political groups, as the places had become “no-go” areas.

While the Sindh advocate general, Abdul Fattah Malik, told the court that delimitation could not be done in Karachi as a new government system was in place, the regional election commissioner, Attaur Rehman, argued that there were legal hurdles preventing the exercise.

Without consensus among political parties, delimitation of constituencies was barred under Article 51(5) of De-limitation of Constituencies Act, 1974, the official insisted.

Brushing aside the legal ambiguity, the judges declared that this only related to the allocation of seats in provinces and had nothing to do with delimitation. “The purpose of delimitation is to end divisions of areas so that the elections can be held in true spirit,” Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali explained.

As the officer pressed on with his stance, the judges were visibly irked. “Don’t force us to issue contempt order against you also,” Justice Jamali warned.

The apex court then issued a notice to the election commission secretary to appear and explain the non-compliance of orders on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2012.