SHC moved against delay in by-elections in remaining UCs

The Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the delay in holding local government elections in Karachi for the 11 remaining union committees.

JI city chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman’s petition said that despite a lapse of 50 days, the provincial government had not held polls for the offices of chairman and vice chairman in the UCs where LG elections had been postponed due to the candidates’ deaths.

Rehman’s counsel Usman Farooq said the JI leader had also approached the election commissioner to request that the LG polls schedule be announced, but no such announcement had been made.

He said the situation was making the city’s residents believe that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was extending a favour to the province’s ruling party. He explained that there was every likelihood that the JI’s candidates were set to win in the 11 UCs, which was evident from the results of the polls for the general seats there. He also said the delaying tactics were seemingly aimed at keeping the chairmen and vice chairmen out of the city council and the town councils to stop them from voting in the elections for the mayor and the town chairmen.

The counsel said the returning officers had illegally changed the results of a number of UCs, and they had been challenged before the ECP, following which the results of 20 UCs had been withheld. He said the voters of the UCs concerned were being deprived of their right to elect their representatives as chairmen and vice chairmen.