The Supreme Court will again take up the issue in the first week of February. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue a new schedule for local government elections in Sindh and Punjab. According to the previous schedule, polling was to take place on Jan 18 in Sindh and Jan 30 in Punjab.
A three-judge bench – headed by Chief Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jillani and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed – ordered that the new schedule be announced after all necessary preparations for the elections, including delimitation process, were completed.
On January 6, the ECP had filed an application before the Supreme Court, requesting that it needed time for holding the LG elections in Sindh and Punjab, after their high courts declared the delimitation exercise in each province illegal.
The ECP’s application said that as the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013 and Sindh Government Act, 2013 had to be amended by the provinces and fresh delimitation had to be carried out in light of the courts’ rulings, the ECP needed more time as the current schedule did not allow sufficient time to make the necessary preparations.
Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar told the court that the LG elections were not possible after the high courts’ judgments. “Time is also required to fulfill constitutional requisites to hold fair, free and transparent elections,” he added.
The court accepted the ECP request and allowed it to cancel the earlier schedule and announce a fresh one. The Supreme Court will again take up the issue in the first week of February.
During the hearing, the ECP officials also told the court that they were ready to hold the LG elections according to the on earlier schedule in case the apex court revisited the high courts’ judgments.
The ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan also told the court that the LG elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), cantonment boards and the Islamabad Capital Territory would be held on February 28. “However, the ECP will decide the final schedule in this regard in its January 15 meeting,” he informed the court.
The former chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in November last year had given a schedule to the ECP for the LG elections in Punjab and Sindh at the commission’s request.
The Sindh government has already challenged Sindh High Court’s judgment and the apex court will take up this petition on January 27. The detailed judgment of the Lahore High Court is yet to be announced. So far only Balochistan government has succeeded in holding the LG elections.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2014.
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in sindh they scared of mqm and in punjab they scared ho ppp or any other that's way they don't want lb election