Grassroot governance: Top court orders provinces to submit LG polls schedule

All provincial governments, except Khyber-Pakhunkhwa, have completed preparations.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court has asked all provincial governments to announce the schedule of the local bodies elections and submit it to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by October 7.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the case and directed all the provincial governments to enforce the Article 140A of the Constitution by holding local bodies elections.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan had earlier announced that his party’s government would hold local bodies’ elections within 90 days to devolve power to the grassroots level. But all the provincial governments except that of Khyber-Pakhunkhwa (K-P) have handed over relevant documents to ECP for holding local bodies elections.

A judge asked, “Where is the PTI, and why could it not take a lead in the race?” Apparently, the provinces do not want to hold elections, the chief justice said. Justice Gulzar Ahmad, a member of the bench, observed that after the local government’s term ended, the relevant law also automatically lapsed.

ECP Director General Sher Afgan said that no request was received from any of the provinces to hold local body elections despite repeated requests since the year 2010.

Balochistan, on its part, had carried out demarcations of union councils on the basis of the old census on which elections cannot be held.

The Sindh advocate-general stated that the demarcations of the province would be completed on November 4. Meanwhile, Punjab has also completed it demarcations, the province’s advocate general stated.

The court was informed that administrators have been appointed and soon the local government elections would be held.

The chief justice said the election commission should have no issues in administering the local bodies’ polls as every institution is at its disposal.

The court also warned of consequences in case of failure. The case has been adjourned till October 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2013.