Provisional census results challenged in high court

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federal law officer and other respondents on a petition challenging the results of the national housing and population census prepared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The petition has been filed by Pakistan Qaumi Movement’s chief Iqbal Kazmi. The petitioner contends that the national census had to be conducted through the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the PBS was to have a role in the CCI.

The petitioner further contends that the results of the census were manipulated to depict a lower population count in Sindh and a higher one in Punjab. This move, the petition states, was driven by the aim of increasing the number of electoral constituencies in Punjab.

Kazmi prayed the court to declare the census results ultra vires to Article 70(4) of the Constitution and to issue directives for the process to be redone under the supervision of a judicial commission.

The petitioner also requested that the CCI be declared as the institution responsible for conducting the national housing and population census and that the recommendations of the CCI’s members be considered for the new count.

SUP challenges new graft law

The Sindh United Party (SUP) has filed petition in the high court against the repeal of the National Accountability Ordinance in the province.

In its petition, the SUP states that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) provincial government’s move to repeal and replace the accountability law was aimed at stalling the National Accountability Bureau’s ongoing corruption inquiries against sitting ministers, bureaucrats and politicians. 

To this end, the SUP contends that the PPP had introduced and unlawfully passed the NAO repeal bill without any discussion or debate in the provincial assembly. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the National Accountability Ordinance Repeal Act was unconstitutional and has been based on the supposition that after the 18th amendment the concurrent list has been abolished and the matter of criminal law, procedure and evidence now solely fall within the ambit of the provincial assembly. This stance, he said, was completely fallacious. 

He submitted that Article 143 of the Constitution clearly provides that in case of any inconsistency, conflict or repugnancy between the federal and provincial statutes, whether passed before or after the act, the federal statute would prevail. 

The counsel submitted that the impugned law could not override the provisions of Article 142 and 143 of the Constitution and the Sindh Accountability Act cannot have any bearing on the operations of the NAB Ordinance 1999.

He alleged that the impugned act was to protect the PPP leadership and their favourite bureaucrats from inquiries, investigations and references which come under the NAB Ordinance. He added that the act militates against the right of life of the petitioner and people of the province as it is a right of the petitioner and the people of the Sindh to seek prosecution against anyone involved in corruption and dishonest practices.

The court was requested to declare the new anti-graft law passed by the Sindh Assembly as unconstitutional and ultra vires to the Constitution and that no provision of the Sindh Accountability Act overrides or eclipses the inquiries, investigations and proceedings ongoing under the NAB Ordinance 1999.