Local govt elections: Court strikes down delimitation law

ECP directed to take up delimitations afresh and hold elections without delay.

LAHORE:

A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday declared the delimitation of constituencies for the upcoming local government elections in the Punjab illegal and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to carry out fresh delimitations and hold the elections without delay.

The bench declared Sections 8 and 9 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 illegal and directed the government to make a new law handing over the process of delimitation to the Election Commission.

The bench, after going through the delimitations record, remarked that the delimitations had been completed within 11 days which was astonishing. “This is not the Radcliff Award that demarcated the boundary of two countries with a pen,” a judge remarked.

Counsel for around 400 petitioners challenging the delimitations, said the delimitations had been carried out by district government officials who had the interests of the ruling party in mind.

An additional advocate general, appearing on behalf of the government, said the delimitations had been carried out in accordance with Sections 8 and 9 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013. He said a division bench of the LHC had upheld the legal provisions.

He requested the court to dismiss the petitions for having no legal value.

The petitioners said according to Article 140-A (2) of the Constitution, the 18th Amendment had empowered the election commission to hold local government elections and delimitations in this regard. Delimitation was not in the provincial government’s purview. They said Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the PLGA contravened the Constitution.

They said the Supreme Court had held in the Workers’ Party case that holding free and fair elections was the Election Commission’s duty. The ECP has unlimited powers in this regard including the power to carry out delimitations.

During the arguments against delimitations, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said, “If delimitations were not carried out according to the law, how can free and fair elections be possible?”

Acting Advocate General Mustafa Ramday said the provincial government was empowered to carry out delimitations the way it did in the year 2000. He said delimitations were not part of the electoral process and it was the responsibility of the government to facilitate the Election Commission in this regard.

Muhammad Azhar Siddique, counsel for one of the petitioners, said the election commissioner had issued the schedule for the elections in haste without hearing objections against delimitations.

After hearing the arguments, the bench initially reserved judgment but later announced a short order declaring Sections 8 and 9 of the PLGA in contravention of the Constitution. It directed the Election Commission to fulfil its responsibility regarding the delimitations so that elections could be held on time.

The detailed judgment on the matter would be announced later.

Section 8 (3): The Government shall, in the prescribed manner, delimit a Union Council into six wards for the election of members on general seats and into two wards, consisting of three adjoining wards of the Union Council, for the election of the two seats reserved for women

Section 9 (1): The Government shall, in the prescribed manner, delimit a Municipal Committee into wards for election of members of the Municipal Committee on general seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2014.