Supreme Court. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The Supreme Court has set aside the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict on delimitation of union councils (UC) in the Rawalpindi Division.
The three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar declared that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had the authority to carry out delimitation of the union councils too.
Justice Mehmood Ahmed Bhatti of the LHC Rawalpindi bench had declared the delimitation of over 37 UCs of the division void on October 1.
The single bench gave the verdict on identical petitions filed by 47 individuals against delimitation.
The ECP had challenged the verdict, making the Punjab government, the federal joint census commissioner of the Statistics Division, Rawalpindi Local Government Assistant Director Haroon Abbasi, UC Murree former nazim Sohrab Ahmed Abbasi, Murree Tehsil Municipal Committee member, and others as respondents.
During the hearing, Munir Ahmad Paracha appeared on behalf of the ECP.
Paracha said that the high court had “wrongly” recorded a finding that despite a bar in section 10-A of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, the court had the jurisdiction to review the delimitation of a union council.
He also said that the LHC had “misinterpreted” the provisions of chapter II and III, and “misunderstood” the provisions of section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013.
He requested the bench to set aside the high court ruling so the local government polls could be held in time.
The ECP, in support of the questions raised maintained that the Punjab LG Act was promulgated on August 23, 2013.
In the original scheme, the delimitation was to be conducted by the provincial government.
However, the court interpreted Article 140-A of the constitution, and held that “election” includes “delimitation” of the constituencies. As a result of the judgment, two amendments were introduced in the LG act.
The appellant further contended that section(s) 6 to 10 of the act were relevant for present purposes.
Meanwhile, Raja Shafqat Abbasi who appeared on behalf of the respondents contended that the ECP, while carrying out delimitation process did not follow the rules.
He contended that the executive could create new UCs.
After hearing the arguments, the bench set aside the LHC’s judgment, wherein the court had declared that the commission had no authority to create new UCs.
However, the Supreme Court has remanded the matter to the high court by asking it to give ruling over the objections of the respondents on delimitation process until the third week of November.
The apex court also said that if the LHC chief justice considered appropriate than a special bench might be formed to decide the case.
Meanwhile, the same bench in a short order allowed chairmen and members of the Zakat committees to contest local government polls.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2015.
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