Pressed for time: SHC nullifies delimitation but insists SC timeline cannot be disturbed

Court observed the boundaries were redrawn arbitrarily

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) wants fresh delimitations in constituencies where it feels the guidelines were ignored but it also does not want the authorities to disturb the timeline for local government elections set by the Supreme Court.

The division bench, headed by the SHC Chief Justice Faisal Arab, had on Friday nullified the ongoing process of redrawing constituencies in different districts. It issued a detailed judgment on Saturday.

Breaking rules

The detailed order explained why the bench nullified the redrawn boundaries in certain constituencies. The provincial government was asked to carry out delimitation for the upcoming local government elections under Section 10(1) (2) and 10(3) of the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), 2001 within the confines of SLGA, 2013.

But the bench observed that the guidelines were not followed properly in terms of the territorial unity and the distinction between urban and rural areas in several constituencies. “Apparently it looked to have been done in an arbitrary manner and to facilitate the gerrymandering [sic],” read the judgment.

The judges ordered that only patent irregularities need to be corrected without disturbing the polling schedule. Hence, the corrections will only be made where it appears that ‘territorial unity’ was not maintained, or where rural areas were annexed with an urban area.

The bench stated that the fresh delimitation of the councils will be carried within a period of five days starting September 23.

Only those petitioners can seek fresh delimitations in the next three days if their cases fall in the above two conditions, otherwise, all grievances must be shared after the elections.

The bench ordered that no fresh nominations to stand in elections can be allowed in areas where fresh delimitation is carried out after this order.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.