SC to hear ECP plea against delay in K-P LG polls today

PHC ruled that LG elections be held after Ramazan due to harsh weather conditions

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday (today) hear the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) petition against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) ruling in which it postponed the second phase of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) local government election scheduled for March 27.

A division bench of the apex court led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan will take up the matter.

On February 4, the PHC Abbottabad bench had postponed the next phase of the LG elections, a decision that was welcomed by the Hazara Province Movement, which vowed to field candidates from every district and village council of the Hazara Division, including Battagram, Allai and Torghar.

The high court had directed the electoral body to hold the elections after Ramazan, keeping in view the harsh weather forecast next month.

The court had also suspended the ECP notification dated January 20, 2022, regarding holding the second phase of the local body polls in 18 districts of K-P on March 27, 2022.

However, the ECP on Tuesday filed an application for early hearing of the petition.

The ECP in its petition stated that the PHC judgment impinges upon the independence of the commission in holding and conduct of LG elections and in due constitution of the local governments under articles 219(d), 222(d) and 222(f) of the Constitution read with Section 219 of the Election Act, 2017.

"The impugned judgement/order unduly interferes with the petitioner’s (ECP) exclusive and specialised domain of conducting local government elections including announcement of the election programme including the date of election and the schedule for various activities starting from the issuance of public notice by the Returning Officers inviting nomination papers up to the polling day and consolidation of results as provided in sub-section (3) and (4) of Section 219 of the Election Act, 2017 read with Rule 165 of the Election Rules, 2017."

Also read: PHC decision to postpone LG polls welcomed

It is stated that the PHC could not substitute its decision over the discretion of the commission in announcing the election programme under Section 219(3) of the Election Act, 2017, especially when the same had been announced with the consent of the provincial government and after holding proper hearing on the applications of the local MNA and MPA accepting their request for postponing the elections from January to the end of March 2022 just before the advent of the holy month of Ramazan.

"The high court has failed to appreciate that the petitioner is mandated to hold LG elections within 120 days of the expiry of the term of the previous LG under Section 219(4) of the Election Act, 2017 whereas LG election in K-P is already considerably delayed much beyond the 120-day statutory period.

"The impugned judgment/order is also in direct conflict with the directions of this august court passed from time to time for the timely holding of elections without any judicial intervention regarding the election programme determined by the petitioner.

"The impugned judgment/order is liable to be set aside being in violation of Article 10A of the Constitution and the established norms of judicial proceedings denying a meaningful opportunity of representation and hearing to the petitioner so much so that the writ petition was decided on the very first hearing without issuing notice or seeking comments from the petitioner and merely marking the presence of law officer of the petitioner who had no instructions from the petitioner in the matter."