PHC moved to restrain ECP from holding LG polls in 120 days

PESHAWAR: A member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly belonging to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding the local government elections within 120 days.

The lawmaker prayed the court to direct the ECP and KP government to hold the election in accordance with the Local Government Amendment Act 2019.

Under the Amendment Act 2019, he pointed out that the government had set a six-month period to carry out delimitation and make preparations for holding the local government election.

The petition was filed by JUI-F MPA Mahmood Ahmad Khan Bhittani elected from PK-94, Tank.

He is seeking an order of the court to restrain the ECP and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from initiating the electoral process and holding Local Government Election within 120 days.

The lawmaker filed the petition through his lawyer Ali Gohar Durrani.

He prayed the court that no electoral process can be initiated under the Election Act 2017 in the absence of the requirements necessary under the Local Government Amendment Act 2019.

The MPA pointed out that the provincial government had made amendments to the Local Government Act 2013 called the Local Government Amendment Act 2019 which clearly lays down six-month timeframe for holding the local government election.

The petitioner submitted it seemed the provincial government was holding election within 120 days under the Election Act 2017 despite the amendment fixing six-month time. The JUI-F lawmaker claimed in the petition that the provincial government wanted farce delimitation process, which was pre-poll rigging.

He requested the court to direct the respondents not to initiate election process before the implementation of the Amendment Act 2019.

The petitioner prayed the court to declare illegal the initiation of electoral process in the absence of pre-delimitation of constituencies in accordance with section 19 of the Election Act.

KP government through Chief Secretary, secretary Local Government Department, secretaries Establishment Department and Administration Department were made respondents in the petition.