Ongoing plea: Lawyer challenges dual nationals’ right to contest LG elections

KARACHI:

The provincial authorities have one more week to justify the recent amendment to the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, that allows dual nationality holders to contest the upcoming local bodies’ elections in the province.

By September 16, they will file their comments in the Sindh High Court, explaining the rationale behind the legal amendment, which has allegedly been done in the violation of the landmark judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in 2012.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, granted time after the provincial advocate-general appeared before the court on Wednesday to seek more time for the comments.A lawyer, Zulfiqar Ali Domki, had challenged the amendment to Section 36(1) (c) of the Act. He said that the Sindh Assembly, on August 12, passed the Sindh Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill, 2015, whereby omitting the clause (c) of sub-section one of Section 36 of the law. In this section, around 11 conditions relating to the qualification of a candidate to contest the local government elections were described in detail, he added.

He argued that the omitted clause stated that: “He ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan; or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state” as one of the conditions on the basis of which a prospective candidate could be disqualified from contesting the local bodies’ elections.

The petitioner argued, however, that the amendment was a clear violation of the judgment given by the Supreme Court in the case relating to dual national members of parliament. “This amendment was made with malafide intent and is not sustainable. Actually, the amendment was made to accommodate the near and dear of the ministers, MNAs and MPAs, of the ruling party,” claimed Domki.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2015.