SHC issues notices to ECP, others on petitions against acceptance of Wahab’s nomination papers

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and others on petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami candidates against the acceptance of nomination papers filed by Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab for the by-elections for chairman of union committees (UCs) in Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur towns.

The petitioners, Mohammad Sabir Khan Abbasi and Mohammad Husnain, and others submitted in their petitions that they were candidates for the office of Ibrahim Hyderi UC-8 and Mauripur UC-3 chairman where Wahab had also filed nomination papers.

They submitted that the mayor was a registered voter of the Gizri UC in Saddar Town, District South, and he had also submitted nomination papers for contesting elections in the subject UC.

They submitted that Wahab was not a resident of Mauripur or Ibrahim Hyderi. The SHC was informed that in view of Wahab’s ineligibility to contest the elections from Mauripur and Ibrahim Hyderi as he was not a voter there, the petitioners had filed objections before the returning officer and appellate tribunal but they refused to accept their objections and dismissed them.

They submitted that the returning officer and appellate tribunal had not applied their judicial mind and even could not differentiate between the municipal and town municipal corporations, and union committee and union council while disposing of their appeals.

They submitted that the election tribunal did not consider qualification criteria for election of the candidate for the office of a UC chairman which says that a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of the council unless he was enrolled as a voter in the electoral rolls of the council or ward concerned.

They submitted that superior courts had categorically decided that a person contesting the elections directly should be a voter of the concerned council as per the Section 35(c) of the local government law.

The petitioners said there was a clear distinction between indirect elections on reserved seats and direct election for a council. They said that in the indirect elections, a person participating in the elections either for the council of metropolitan corporation or for the council of town municipal corporation may be a voter of the whole area coming under the jurisdiction of the said council, but a person contesting the direct election for a union committee must be a voter of that union committee as per the Section 35(1)(C) of the Local Government Act 2013.

They also questioned the clarification issued by the law department on October 9, 2023, submitting that such a clarification was a twisted interpretation of the law as the law had categorically restricted the eligibility of contesting persons for any post in a local council in the direct elections.

The high court was requested to set aside the appellate tribunal order with regard to acceptance of the nomination papers of Wahab and declare that he was ineligible for contesting the elections from the UCs of Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur being not enlisted in the voters' list of the said UCs.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Acting Chief Justice Irfan Saadat Khan after preliminary hearing of the petitions issued notices to the ECP and others, and called their comments on November 2.

It is pertinent to mention that appellate tribunals in the West and Malir districts had dismissed a set of appeals against the acceptance of Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab’s nomination papers for the two union committees in Mauripur and Ibrahim Hyderi towns.

Wahab has filed nomination papers for the UC chairman post in Saddar Town’s UC-13, Mauripur Town’s UC-3 and Ibrahim Hyderi Town’s UC-8 to contest the local government by-elections scheduled for November 5.