LAHORE: Citing personal reasons, Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the Lahore High Court on Monday referred a petition by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Jahangir Tareen, challenging new delimitations, to the chief justice to fix it before another bench. The petition was fixed before Justice Ahsan on Monday. When the hearing began, the judge excused himself from hearing the petition due to “personal reasons”. Tareen’s petition, challenging new delimitations by the Punjab government for local government elections, was filed on Saturday. The petitioner had said that the government had intervened in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) work by conducting delimitations following an amendment to the Local Government Ordinance 2013. He said the government had no power to demarcate constituencies and had violated the Constitution. Tareen had requested the court to set aside the amendment and the delimitation carried out by the provincial government.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2015.