SHC issues notices to ECP on plea against mayoral election

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday issued notices to the provincial advocate general (AG), Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab on an application for urgent hearing of a petition seeking the declaration that the election for the Karachi mayor and appointment of Wahab as the mayor by the commission was unconstitutional.

Petitioner Mohammad Amir Khan had submitted that the Sindh government introduced an amendment to the local government law after the second phase of the local government elections in the province and allowed unelected persons to contest the elections to the slots of mayor and deputy mayor of the metropolitan and district corporations, which was against the spirit of the constitution and the local government laws.

The petitioner’s counsel, Tariq Mansoor, submitted that the impugned amendment and the notification of the appointment of the Karachi mayor issued by the ECP was against the Objectives Resolution, constitutional commandments and constitutional limitations, and it was therefore tantamount to and prima facie a colourable legislation.

The high court was requested to declare the amendment to the Section 18-B of the Sindh Local Government Act as unlawful and unconstitutional. The petitioner also requested the SHC to grant urgent hearing of application and issue an interim order restraining Wahab from performing duties as the Karachi mayor till the disposal of the petition.

A division bench of the high court headed by chief justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi granting the application for urgent hearing issued notices to the ECP, Sindh AG and others and called their comments on February 20.

It is pertinent to mention that SHC had earlier ruled that the result of the Karachi mayoral election would be subject to the outcome of the petitions that had challenged the local government law’s amendments allowing unelected persons to contest the elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor.

The high court, while issuing order on Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman’s stay application on the elections for the mayor and deputy mayor, had observed that the operation of the LG Act 2023 and its amendments could not be suspended as an interim measure.

The court had observed that no case for interim relief had been made out, but the result of the election would be subject to the final outcome of the petitions.