The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has barred the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding local government elections in the federal capital under the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2021.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) workers, traders and different unions had challenged the ordinance.
While issuing the order, IHC judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani said that the ordinance can only be issued when the country was at war and the assembly was not in session.
“How can you issue an ordinance when the parliament is in session? We stop the election commission (from holding elections). You present the ordinance before the National Assembly,” the judge said.
Barrister Omar Ijaz Gilani, Qazi Adil, Kashif Malik and other lawyers appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioners and said what will happen if the election is held on the day the ordinance expired?
The government lawyer told the court that local body elections have been held in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Upon this, the judge said that the local body representatives did not have any powers. “Has the federal government released funds? The union councils did not have any funds? The judge remarked.
“How can you issue an ordinance when the parliament is in session? Why was the new local government system introduced through an ordinance in the presence of the Local Government Act? the judge asked.
The assistant attorney general told the court that the population of Islamabad was 0.8 million when the local body elections were held in 2015 under the act. However, now the population had reached to 2 million in Islamabad. He said that the ECP had warned to conduct elections under 2015 act if interior ministry failed to provide data within 10 days.
The public prosecutor said that the parliamentary session ended on November 19 and the ordinance was issued on November 23. He said that the ordinance was issued because the election commission had set November 25 the deadline for legislation.
The court said that on February 14, 2021, the local bodies were done away with, did it remain the same till November. The public prosecutor said that the election commission had ordered the interior ministry to make legislation within 10 days. The court while stopping the election commission from holding the elections ordered to present the ordinance in the National Assembly. Further hearing of the case was adjourned till March 3.
Earlier, CDA workers, traders and different unions held a protest rally against the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2021.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2022.
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