Sindh High Court. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Five days after the matter was brought to court, the petitioner, Sindh government, and the respondent, Election Commission of Pakistan, have settled at least half the dispute on the proposal of creating new constituencies in the province, ahead of the local government polls.
On Monday, a report was jointly submitted by the provincial government and the election commission to the Sindh High Court, claiming that there were only seven districts left in the province whose status was still controversial. Albeit, the dispute would not affect the schedule of the upcoming local bodies' polls, the report pledged, stating that both the parties had agreed on this.
The report was called by the SHC after the provincial secretary for local government had knocked on its door against the ECP for sending a proposal to the chief secretary to create 90 new union councils in 15 districts by shifting the urban areas into rural union councils and wards ahead of the polls that meant to start by the end of this month.
The local government polls in the province, according to the announced schedule, will be conducted in three phases. The first phase is due to start on October 31.
To settle the matter quickly, the court had directed the government and the commission to set up a joint committee to sort out the issue without affecting the elections schedule.
The report added that even if the dispute persisted till the commencement of the election, the schedule would not be disturbed and in the above-mentioned constituencies, the polls would be held later. The two-member bench, headed by SHC chief justice Faisal Arab, fixed Tuesday for the arguments to be heard on the report.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2015.
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