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Tuesday March 19, 2024

LB polls must be held this year: SC

Court rejects govt’s schedule for holding polls in three provinces, Cantt Boards; seeks revised plan today

By our correspondents
March 05, 2015
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) late on Wednesday night rejected the government’s schedule for holding local bodies’ (LB) elections in the Cantonment Boards as well as in the Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa provinces and sought a revised schedule from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by today (Thursday).
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, heard the LB election case at 8:00 pm in the Supreme Court and directed the ECP acting secretary to submit a revised schedule for the election after the Election Commission failed to justify certain dates given for the LB elections in KP, Sindh and Punjab.
Earlier, the government submitted the schedule for holding LB polls in KP, Sindh and Punjab provinces and in the Cantonment Boards.
The attorney general told the court that the delimitation process has to be completed in the three provinces. The present electoral lists are from 2013 and four million new voters from Sindh and Punjab have to be added to the voter lists. This process will take 45 days and five million new ballot papers have to be printed. He said that the LB polls will be conducted in Sindh and Punjab in three phases; the first phase will be completed on January 16, 2016, the second phase on February 20, 2016, and the third phase on March 26, 2016. He said that the LB elections in KP would be held on June 7, 2015, and in the Cantt Boards on May 16, 2015.
However, the court rejected the schedule and ordered that the LB polls in all the three provinces and Cantt Boards must be held this year, 2015, and sought the revised schedule from the ECP.
Justice Jawwad remarked that the ECP is not serious in this matter as holding the polls in so many dates is incomprehensible. New delimitations and preparing voter lists in 10 months are too much delaying; this process must be completed in four months. He said that preparation must be completed till the end of July and the LB polls be jointly held in Punjab and Sindh in September, 2015.
“The schedules of the ECP do not justify which constitutes delay conducting of local bodies’ election in these provinces,” Justice Jawwad ruled in the order, passed after hearing the case for one and a half hour, late Wednesday night.
As far as the LB election in the ICT is concerned, the court was informed by ECP acting Secretary Sher Afgan that there was no law in place for holding LB polls in the ICT.Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt, however, informed the court that the bill for holding LB election in the ICT has been approved by the federal cabinet after it was approved by the relevant committee of the National Assembly, and will be passed in the forthcoming session of Parliament.
The court in its order ruled that the said bill itself provides for holding LB election in the ICT; therefore, in view of the provisions of the Constitution and also bearing in mind the ECP has been charged of holding LB polls in anticipation of the legislation and the ECP shall forthwith commence the process of elections in the ICT.
“Let the revised schedule for Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Cantonment Boards be submitted by the Election Commission of Pakistan before 9.30 am today (Thursday),” the court ruled .
The court in its order further ruled that the matter of holding LB polls in the provinces of Punjab, KP, Sindh and Cantonment Boards is of utmost importance as in Article 140-A of the Constitution, each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments. And elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The court ruled that the objective of the said provision of the Constitution is obvious that at the grassroots level, local government system and to devolve local system empowering the people of Pakistan at grassroots level. The court ruled that these articles stipulate that the ECP shall be charged with duty of preparing electoral roll and holding of general elections and LB election.
A period of five years had elapsed since the incorporation of said provisions but the command of the Constitution was not fulfilled by the governments of the three provinces except province of Balochistan,” the court observed.
As far as KP, Sindh and Punjab are concerned, LB polls were not yet held by these provinces and in the Cantonment Boards and Islamabad Capital Territory, local body’s elections were also not held, the court further ruled in its order.
The court also referred to its previous judgments, delivered on November 5, 2013 and March 19, 2014 that gave directives for the fulfilment of the command of the Constitution.The court ruled that in terms of above articles, it has seized with the matter for the past couple of years and has been repeatedly referring the ECP and five governments to conduct LB election.
“It is a matter of concerns for us that the court which is repeatedly directing the governments and Election Commission of Pakistan to fulfil their respective obligations and we have been hearing this case for day-to-day basis because the very foundation of democratic dispensation appears to be disregarded by the constitutional functionaries which has been mandated by the Constitution,” the court ruled.
The court ruled that earlier, during the day, it heard the case in length and had directed the ECP to give schedule for the LB election in these three provinces and in the cantonment boards by 7.45 pm. It is now 9:15 pm, the ECP has submitted the schedule for holding local body’s elections in KP, Sindh and Punjab but the said schedule do not justify certain dates which constitutes delay in conducting of local government elections.
The court directed the ECP to submit a revised schedule for holding local body’s elections in KP, Sindh, Punjab, Cantonment Boards as well as in ICT before 9:30 am today (Thursday) and adjourned the hearing.
The court further directed the ECP to submit a report by March 10 regarding holding of the LB election in the ICT based on the anticipated legislation, approved by the federal cabinet and the relevant committee of the National Assembly.The court also directed the AG to submit copy of the bill, approved by the federal cabinet for holding LB polls in the ICT and also directed him to provide the copy of the bill to the ECP.