LG polls suffer another setback

SHC nullifies inclusion of rural areas into urban ones

KARACHI:

As the much-awaited local government polls finally make their way to the poorly-governed Sindh province, the process suffers blows time and again due to the half-hearted efforts of the provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

With the second phase of the polls that will devolve powers to the grassroots level around the corner, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has nullified the inclusion of rural areas into the urban ones in 23 local bodies' constituencies in 11 districts.



A division bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, ordered the election authorities to review the constituencies, which were not changed under an agreement between the provincial government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The election body has 24 hours to review those electoral constituencies' bifurcation and report to the court on its legality.

On Monday, the bench, which has been especially constituted to hear and decide the election-related litigation, had reserved its verdict on various identical petitions filed by aspiring candidates belonging to opposition parties.

The petitioners, including Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Jam Shabbir and Chaudhry Basharat Mehmood, had questioned the alleged agreement between the local government secretary and the election commissioner, wherein they decided not to change the status of the constituencies despite a court order in a delimitation case.



Their counsel, Syed Mureed Ali Shah, had submitted that the election authorities had informed the court on October 19 that issues over the delimitation of some union councils had been amicably resolved and polls in only 11 districts will be rescheduled due to the newly created union councils. He requested the court to declare that the alleged agreement was completely unconstitutional and in violation of the court order.



The court was also requested to issue a writ, directing the respondents to implement the court order of September 18 by issuing a notification to that effect, and suspend the operation of the impugned alleged agreement.

Aggrieved MQM

The MQM had challenged the delimitation process for union councils and committees in Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Tando Allahyar, Tando Jam and Shahdadpur, arguing that official notifications regarding the delimitations of several towns and councils were unlawful and aimed to manipulate the electoral college. The party's lawyer, Barrister Farogh Naseem, said that the delimitation was illegal as the union councils and committees were unlawfully inducted into other districts without giving any procedures for such shifting. He contended that the delimitation process was not conducted by the ECP in light of the guidelines given by the high court in its September 18 judgment and several urban areas were included in rural areas of these councils.



The MQM had also questioned the creation of the Municipal Committee, Qasimabad, by separating it from Hyderabad and submitted that such a division was not only a violation of the superior court's orders but also created divisions on a linguistic basis.

A day earlier, the Sindh government's counsel, Farooq H Naek, had questioned, however, the maintainability of the petitions filed by the MQM, PML-N, PML-F and other candidates.

He had contended that the election process should not be disturbed. Naek said the high court had, while deciding the petition regarding the delimitation of constituencies, already observed that the aggrieved parties could approach the appropriate forum after the elections. He had pleaded the court to dismiss the petitions as they lacked merit.

Disposing of the petitions, the judges nullified the creation process of the local bodies' constituencies. It directed the provincial election commissioner to review the creation of all the union councils and committees, within 24 hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2015.