MULTAN City News

PPP to move Senate against Islamabad LG polls
From Nadeem Shah
MULTAN: The PPP has to challenge the local government polls in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and finalised the draft of a privilege motion to be tabled in the Senate as the process is against the law and set rules and regulations, said Barrister Haider Zaman Qureshi, a senior party leader.
Sources say PPP Senator Saeed Ghani will move the motion in Senate. “The issuance of schedule for ICT LG polls is a breach of Senate privileges. The enactment of law on ICT local government polls has been pending with the Senate and there is no legal provision available to hold the LG polls in the Islamabad Capital Territory,” the privilege motion says.
Qureshi, who is also a legal consultant, finalised the privilege motion draft under Rule 71 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012. He will also file a petition in the superior court in a bid to prevent holding of polls.
The privilege motion draft says the Interior Ministry and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have kicked off the ICT election process despite knowing the fact that the ICT LG Polls Bill 2015 has not yet been passed by the Senate. The government and ECP have demarcated the constituencies, notifying the delimitation through a notification on June 15 in the absence of necessary law and regulations.
It says the government undermined the authority of the Upper House and powers proposed in ICT LG Bill 2015 as the bill has yet to be deliberated. The government ignored the Upper House’s powers provided in dully promulgated three laws which include the ICT Local Government Ordinance 1979, the ICT Local Government Ordinance 2002 and the ICT Local Government Election Ordinance 2002 mentioned in Section 129 (Repeal Saving) of the ICT Local Government Bill 2015.
According to the privilege motion, the “Statement of Objects and Reasons” of the said legislation, the federal government has tried to mislead the Senate by stating that there is a “lack of any local government system in ICT since 1996”, whereas the Section 129 of the bill provides for repeal of the three existing laws on the subject.
The Article 70 of the Constitution provides for a matter in the Federal Legislative List, a bill may originate in either House, if the House in which it originates passes it, it shall be transmitted to the other House. The National Assembly had passed the bill and sent to Senate under Article 70 of the Constitution.
Under Rule 98 of the Rule of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012, the said bill was referred to the standing committee concerned and continuously pending there. No steps can be taken or orders passed or action taken on the basis of or the strength flowing from any of the provisions of the said bill because at the instant time it is only a proposal for legislation as it pending with the standing committee concerned. The Clause (3) of Article 75 provides that a bill will become law and it is called an Act of Parliament only when the president has given assent.
The privilege motion has stated that the reliance on various sections of the legislative proposal, which is still pending before the Senate amounts to a breach of privilege of the House.