IHC seeks comments from ECP on LG polls

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday served notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other respondents in a plea challenging the local body elections in the federal capital.

The court remarked, it hoped that the ECP would extend the date for submission of nomination papers in accordance with new notification of the Ministry of Interior.

Chief Justice IHC, Athar Minallah heard the case moved by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Petitioners' lawyer Adil Aziz Qazi said that number of union councils had been increased to 101 but the ECP had issued schedule for 50 union councils. To a query by the bench, the lawyer said that the ordinance was issued by the PTI government. He said the correction in voters list had also been started, even the votes of former two chairmen were missed from the list, he added.

The advocate said there was a population of two million in Islamabad and every union council had 20,000 voters in average. He prayed the court to suspend the election schedule until the outcome of the judgment in the case.

The chief justice rejected the request of stay order and remarked that people couldn't be deprived of their representation. The court adjourned further hearing of the case till coming Monday with the above instructions.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2022.