SC turns down K-P’s plea for stopping LG vote

Apex court directs ECP to consult all stakeholders and take a decision

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court turned down on Monday a plea of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government for stopping the second phase of the local government elections and forwarded the petitions relating to polling to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, said that the apex court would not stop the elections and directed the ECP to take a decision after hearing all the parties concerned, including the K-P government.

During the hearing, ECP lawyer Afnan Karim Kundi informed the bench that the polls supervisor had changed the schedule and the voting date had now been pushed to March 31 instead of March 27.

However, the K-P advocate general said that the ECP was obliged to consult the provincial government before giving the schedule. He added that the ECP did not consult the provincial government on the election schedule.

Justice Ahsan said that the Election Commission was not even heard in the high court on an election-related petition. The advocate general said that an ECP law officer appeared before the court. Justice Ijaz then directed the ECP to listen to the parties and then take a decision.

The K-P advocate general requested the bench to stop the elections, saying that the provincial government would appear before the ECP. However, Justice Ijaz said that the Supreme Court would not stop the election under any circumstances, adding that the court did not want to set a bad precedence.

The ECP lawyer took the position that only 9 out of 9 million people had objected to the elections. Justice Ijaz said that elections were stopped in the whole of K-P at the request of five districts.

If issuing a schedule was not the prerogative of the ECP, then the polls supervisor should be closed, the judge said, adding that consultation did not mean these were binding, rather it meant listening and taking decisions.

The ECP lawyer told the bench that the provincial government was consulted twice and the election dates were given by the K-P government.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2022.