LG constituencies: SHC reserves verdict on fate of agreement to retain delimitation status

Opposition members had challenged consensus between govt, ECP

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved on Tuesday its verdict on the fate of the agreement between the provincial election commissioner and the local government department on retaining the status of 23 local government (LG) constituencies in 11 districts.

A division bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from the lawyers representing the petitioner, the provincial government and the provincial election commission.

As the voters went to polls in the first phase of the LG elections, some candidates belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional had challenged the agreement between the election commission and provincial authorities after the high court cancelled the LG constituencies' fresh delimitation in September.

The petitioners, including Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Jam Shabbir and Chaudhry Basharat Mehmood, had challenged the alleged agreement to keep the original status of the local constituencies, despite a court order in the delimitation case.



They had argued that the election authorities had on October 19 informed the court that the issues over the delimitation of some union councils had been amicably resolved and polls in only 11 districts will be rescheduled.

They claimed that the understanding between the local government and election authorities is illegal. The court order, issued on September 18, on the delimitation of local constituencies related to rural and urban issues needs to be reviewed, they claimed.

The petitioner claimed that the respondents filed an alleged agreement report in court with mala fide intention. The court was requested to declare that the alleged agreement is unconstitutional and in violation of court orders. Last week, the bench had issued notices to the provincial LG secretary, Sindh election commissioner to file their comments on the alleged agreement reached by them.

During Monday's proceedings, the lawyers representing the provincial government and provincial election commissioner filed their replies in court. After hearing the arguments, the bench reserved its verdict to be announced on Tuesday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2015.