Supreme Court, National Assembly at loggerheads over LB polls

Chief justice has warned authorities of serious consequences if the election dates are not respected.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court rejected the petition filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking a two- to three-month delay in the deadline for local bodies elections on Tuesday, Express News reported. According to the Supreme Court, all decisions were made on November 5. 

The ECP, in its petition, had prayed that holding credible elections were not possible on the schedule it announced on the directive of the Supreme Court earlier.

The ECP had said there were many lacunae in the local government laws of Punjab and Sindh while both provinces had not finalised the delimitations.

The chief justice had remarked that the delay in the LB election caused a serious loss to the country as there were no local governments for many years.

NA looks to delay polls

The National Assembly passed a resolution today asking the ECP to hold local bodies (LB) elections as soon as possible.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Arif Alvi presented a motion in the assembly seeking to delay the LG elections until March 2014. The Assembly agreed to a delay but scrapped March as an option, asking the ECP to submit an acceptable date.

Meanwhile, the deadline to submit nomination papers for candidates in Punjab and Sindh was extended to November 13. The earlier deadline was November 12.

Magnetic ink pads

The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) – the organisation responsible for producing magnetic ink pads for voting – said it needs four months for the production of required number of items.

The PCSIR had earlier told ECP that it cannot manufacture more than 0.5 million pads in a month and that too if their organisation works in double shifts.

Around two million stamp pads with magnetised ink are needed for the local body elections.



By hearing the case on local governments, the Supreme Court has pushed the provinces to hold elections sooner rather than later. The governments, which were admittedly sleeping on the issue, have agreed, and have been pushed into necessary action. Mission accomplished. There should be no conflict here.

The only problem is the timeframe. The Supreme Court wants the polls held later this month in Sindh and in early December in Punjab and Balochistan. The body that will hold the elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), has followed through on the orders partially by announcing it will hold the polls in Balochistan on the given date. But after long consultations, the court was told by the ECP that polls in Sindh and Punjab are not possible within this timeframe because of the sheer amount of legal work and preparation that is left, such as fresh delimitation, finalisation of laws, framing of rules and finally the secure printing of tens of millions of ballot papers for the two largest provinces of the country. This conclusion was reached after days of consultations with all stakeholders.

Even if, by some gargantuan effort, the polls are held by circumventing ideal scenarios, the process will be open to lots of controversy – no matter which way the results go. Already the appointment of Returning Officers – officials that will be key to the entire process – has created ripples. Yet the court will have none of it. In fact, far from sympathising, the chief justice has warned the authorities of serious consequences if the dates are not respected.

Why cannot the authorities be allowed an extra month or so to do this the right way and to avoid unnecessary controversy for a fledgling democracy? The authorities will hold the elections, but why is the chief justice-led bench in such a hurry? The fundamental question here is what will change a few days after December 7?

Read the full analysis here.