Local councils: ECP stopped from allocating reserved seats to political parties

Petitioners claim denying independent candidates share of reserved quota illegal


Our Correspondent May 17, 2016
Petitioners claim denying independent candidates share of reserved quota illegal. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court restrained on Tuesday the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from calculating the political parties' share in reserved seats for women, youth, labourer/peasant and non-Muslims in the local councils till May 18 (today).

A division bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, passed the order while suspending the ECP's schedule to calculate the political parties' share of reserved seats in local councils and its communication to political parties.

A group of independently elected members of Shikarpur district council had approached the court against allocation of reserved seats to political parties by the ECP ahead of indirect elections on the seats.

The petitioners' lawyer, Haider Waheed, said the ECP had on May 4 announced the schedule for election to fill up the indirect seats in the district councils, municipal committees, town committees, metropolitan corporation and district municipal corporations in Sindh.

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Therefore, the ECP called for names from the electoral college of the relevant councils, committees and corporations to elect the members against reserved seats, as required under Section 18-A of the Sindh Local Government (LG) Act, 2013.

The ECP had set May 18 as the date of calculation of share of each political party in the local council by the returning officers and communication of result.

According to the schedule, the notification of the returned candidates will be issued by May 24. Subsequently, the successful candidates will take oath on May 26.

Waheed informed that the ECP had clearly notified that only political parties were eligible for the allotment of reserved seats, therefore, such allocation would disenfranchise the independent candidates and their voters.

He pointed out that when the petitioners informed the ECP about their decision to join a political party — the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional — the ECP disallowed them from doing so, stating that the elected candidates could join any political party within seven days of publication of their names in the official gazette in light of Rule 42(A) of Sindh Local Government (Election) Rules, 2015.

The judges were informed that the ECP had announced the schedule for the polls in light of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court, which on April 15 this year upheld the Sindh government's amendment to the LG act through which five per cent seats reserved for 'youth' were introduced and number of those reserved for 'women' were increased by 33%.

It was informed that while upholding the amendment, the apex court had also directed the Sindh government to make necessary amendments to rule 42(A).

Secondly, Waheed argued that under section 33 of the LG act, an independent candidate can join any political party at any time, therefore, rule 42(A) being a subordinate law was not binding on the petitioners.

The court was pleaded to declare the rule illegal.

The judges ordered that 'till the next hearing, calculation of share of each political party in the local council by returning officers and communication of result of ECP mentioned in the press release dated May 4, 2016 issued by the ECP shall remain suspended'.

The same order was passed on another petition filed by Abdul Latif Sheikh.

Fixing the next hearing for Wednesday (today), the bench directed the parties to file a counter affidavit, if any.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2016.

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