ECP tells apex court that Sindh, Punjab have not provided complete data for holding LG polls. PHOTO: AFP
“The ECP is committed to initiating the process of delimitation for local governments as soon as possible once complete information relating to notification of demarcation of local areas, determination of number of union councils/wards and authenticated maps are received from the Punjab and Sindh governments as well as amendments in the respective acts by the two provinces,” said the commission in its report.
During Thursday’s hearing, counsel for ECP Akram Sheikh requested the court to bind the Sindh and Punjab government to complete election process so that the commission could announce a schedule for polls within a week.
Upon this, the top court has directed both provincial governments to complete the arrangements for holding local government elections within a month.
The three judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk further directed the federal government to promulgate an ordinance empowering the ECP to hold similar elections in all the 43 Cantonment Boards of the country.
The hearing was adjourned till February 12.
LG poll preparations by Punjab
In its report the commission stated that during a meeting with representatives of the provincial governments and the cantonment boards on December 30, 2014, secretary Punjab local government assured the ECP that the exercise of demarcation of local governments and determination of the number of seats in the local government institutions has been completed for 31 districts of Punjab.
The ECP said they were assured that the requisite notification along with the authenticated maps would be provided to the commission once the requisite exercise is completed in the remaining five districts.
Similarly, a draft for removing anomalies in the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, as highlighted by the commission during a similar meeting, has been prepared and would be presented before the provincial assembly for necessary amendments.
According to the report, the Punjab government has sent details of local areas, number of union councils, wards in each local government along with maps of 25 districts to the Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC) Punjab. For the remaining districts, there was only a promise for swift compliance.
However, the PEC Punjab revealed that in the documents they had so far received, there was no information on the population in each local area. Hence, the report concluded that delimitation could not be initiated.
LG poll preparations by Sindh
On the issue of holding local government elections in Sindh, the ECP in its report said that existing provisions of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 require reconsideration, for the sake of clarity.
Moreover, the commission said that printing of ballot papers for multi-member constituency in party based elections may prove to be a highly challenging task for the Printing Corporation of Pakistan. In this regard, the ECP report noted that the PEC Sindh had proposed single member constituency to be delimited for conducting elections against the seats of general members in the union council and union committee.
Similarly, the secretary local government Sindh had stated that the process of notification of demarcation of local governments and the number of seats, preparation of authenticated maps was in progress and the requisite date and maps would be completed shortly.
A draft bill for removing anomalies in the Sindh Local Government Act 2013, as pointed out by the commission, had also been submitted before the competent authority, and would be tabled in the provincial assembly for consideration.
LG polls in Cantonment Boards
Referring to the issue pertaining to holding local government elections in the cantonment boards, the report submitted by the commission said a draft of the ordinance for amending the Cantonments Ordinance 2002, empowering ECP for conducting local bodies elections in the cantonment boards, has been prepared by the Director General Military Lands and Cantonments Department.
The ECP noted that a draft is pending with the defense ministry for necessary action with the expectation that it would be promulgated within a couple of weeks.
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@Timorlane: Waderas including every ordinary Sindhi from each corner of the province Sindh has full right over Karachi. 'Urdu-speaking people' is not an ethnicity, they are to be called 'Sindhi Urdu-speakers'. In fact you are showing the hatred here. Most educated Urdu-Speaking Sindhis are part of this party (such as Taj Haider, Raza Rabbani, Shehla Raza)
Wadera Corruption Party in its greed to loot Karachi indefinitely and in its ethnic hatred against Karachi and Urdu speaking people has already turned local bodies powerless to solve cities' problems still its thugs are not ready to hold local bodies elections. Wadera Corruption party is a permanent curse to this country.
due to this type of warnings, and later no compliance has eroded the integrity of civil judciary and we have to endure military courts again and again.