Delaying tactics?: Sindh govt challenges election body’s power to create new electoral units

The SHC had earlier ordered the ECP to redraw UCs according to the law

KARACHI: In all likelihood, the local bodies elections scheduled for October 31 in Sindh will see further delays. The provincial government has objected to the election authority's powers to create over 90 new union councils in 15 districts, it emerged on Tuesday.

The government has taken the matter to the Sindh High Court (SHC),  filing an appeal against the letter and proposals sent by the provincial election commission to the chief secretary, asking to create new union councils in light of the high court's October 3 judgment.

While allowing various petitions, an SHC bench had declared the process of redrawing union councils by the provincial government illegal with directives to the election commission to carry out the delimitation in certain constituencies of Naushero Feroze, Karachi and others districts according to the law.

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Filing an appeal through the former law minister, Farooq H Naek, the provincial government argued that the SHC upheld in its judgment the power of the Sindh government to issue notifications in terms of Section 10(1) of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.

But owing to defects in the exercise of delimitation conducted by the election commission, the government said, the court had directed to correct many of the irregularities that were floating on record and were in violation of the principles of territorial unity without disturbing the polling schedule set by the SC.

Therefore, alterations or modifications were allowed to be made in those constituencies that the election commission can carry out expeditiously by looking at the existing boundaries of the disputed constituencies.

The government said that the provincial election commission carried out the delimitation and on the basis of this exercise, it sent two proposals on September 23 and 29, directing the chief secretary to notify new union councils.

The government argued that the said proposals were not only in violation of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 but also the judgment of the SHC order, as the election commission's mandate is to redraw the constituencies, not to create new union councils.

"The Sindh government reiterates its sincere efforts to hold and facilitate the local bodies elections in the province according to the law and the election programme issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan," stated the appeal. However, it claimed that the proposals of the provincial election commission sent to the chief secretary to notify new union councils by excluding and including certain areas from one UC to the other and the proposed changes were against the SHC order.

Explaining the criteria prescribed for the creation of a new union council, the government said the required population for any new union council should be 10,000 to 15,000.

However, it pointed out certain new UCs asked by the election authorities to be created, which had more than the required limit of 15,000 population. They include UC Mithiani (22,199), UC Khair Shah (18,267), UC Ghandtar (24,064), UC Abdul Hassan (17,960), UC Nohtiyami (16,239), UC Dhingano Bozdar (16,969), UC Haji Sanwan Khan Gopang (24,005).

The government contended that the provincial election commission had floated proposals for the creation of the new UCs haphazardly as it had no formal approval from the chief election commissioner to do so.

In the first phase, the process to hold local bodies' polls in eight districts had already been completed, including allotment of symbols. In the second phase, the process of scrutiny of the aspiring candidates in 15 districts has been completed and the appellant tribunals have disposed of the appeals against the acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers on October 12. At this stage, the government opined that the creation of new union councils would delay the local bodies' polls.

Therefore, it pleaded the court to declare the proposals made by the election commission for creating new UCs illegal, without any lawful authority and in violation of the SHC's judgment.

It also sought a direction for the Sindh election commission to conduct the LB elections according to the scheduled issued by the Supreme Court.

Through another application, the government also requested the court to suspend or temporarily stay the operation of the election commission's proposals till the final decision on its petition. The appeal is likely to be taken up in a few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2015.