SHC seeks comments from CEC, chief secy

The petitioner challenges the Sindh govt’s powers to carry out delimitation.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday called for the chief election commissioner (CEC), the provincial chief secretary and the local government and law secretaries to file their comments about a petition challenging the Sindh government’s powers to carry out delimitation for the local government elections.

Petitioner Syed Zafar Ali Shah submitted that in compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders, the provincial government had promulgated on March 2 the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2015, under which it would determine the number of union councils, union committees and wards in municipal committees and town committees for the local government elections. He explained that the election commission would delimit the union councils, union committees and wards after the demarcation.

Shah alleged that the Sindh government had retained the delimitation powers in order to commit gerrymandering, adding that the ruling party wanted to win the local government elections through gerrymandering and unlawful means.

The petitioner’s lawyer argued that through this amendment, the provincial authorities would delimit any council or ward in line with the wishes and aims of the ruling party. He contended that as per the dictum laid down by the apex court, the delimitation exercise was to be undertaken by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and not the Sindh government, adding that it was the duty of the executive authorities to assist the ECP in discharging its duties.

Therefore, the petitioner pleaded to the court to declare those sections of the bill that empowered the Sindh government, instead of the ECP, to demarcate the boundaries of the councils and wards as unconstitutional. He also requested the court to suspend the operation of the bill while restraining the provincial government from demarcating the councils and wards.

In his plea, Shah further sought a declaration that the appointments of assistant commissioners, mukhtiarkars or other government officials as delimitation officers, deputy delimitation officers or assistant delimitation officers by the Sindh government were illegal.

A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, issued notices to the CEC and the provincial authorities to file their comments through the federal and provincial law officers by the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.