Local government elections: ECP in a quandary after LHC decision

Will have to appoint civil servants to hear complaints against delimitation in Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The top poll supervisory body has to seek services of civil servants to hear complaints about delimitation of constituencies before the local government elections in Punjab scheduled for September, this year. And interestingly, there bureaucrats have no experience of judicial matters.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had repeatedly requested the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the services of the lower judiciary for this purpose, but the LHC chief justice on Thursday declined the request – apparently in a bid to avoid political controversies.

A top ECP official told The Express Tribune that the poll supervisory body would have to appoint civil servants to adjudicate complaints against delimitation. “Having no experience of judicial matters, we are not sure how these officers will conduct such hearings,” he added.

The LHC chief justice also rejected ECP’s request for appointment of judicial officers as appellate authorities for the LG elections in cantonments, which will be held on March 25.

The superior judiciary had decided in 2009 that judicial officers would not perform election duties. However, before the May 2013 general elections, then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reviewed the decision and allowed district and sessions judges to work as returning officers (ROs).

The move triggered controversies when opposition parties, especially Imran Khan’s PTI blamed the ROs for facilitating ‘rigging’.

According to some ECP officials, in many countries, including India, civil servants are even appointed as members of their top poll bodies and the senior most amongst them serves as its chief. But due to politicisation of bureaucracy in Pakistan over the years, it is difficult to find non-controversial officials to adjudicate election cases, said one of the ECP officials.

The superior judiciary had annulled the delimitations in Punjab and Sindh in 2013 and asked the ECP to conduct the exercise afresh and ensure impartiality in delimiting these councils before LG elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2015.