MQM moves court against ‘unlawful’ UC delimitations

Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement filed a petition in the Sindh High Court on Saturday against the delimitation of union councils in several districts of the province including Karachi and Mirpurkhas.
Aggrieved with the provincial government’s decision to carve out new boundaries of local government union councils and committees in Malir and Korangi in Karachi, Mirpurkhas and other districts of the province, MQM deputy convener Farooq Sattar submitted in the petition that the notification issued for this purpose was unlawful as it was aimed at manipulating the electoral college.
He submitted that the union committees of Malir district were included in Korangi district in violation of the apex court’s directives. Similarly, some portions of Korangi had been included in Malir.
The MQM leader submitted that the impugned exercise of delimitation was illegal as the union councils and committees were unlawfully inducted into other districts without presenting any procedure in this connection.
Citing the local government secretary, the provincial census commissioner, the Karachi commissioner and the Election Commission of Pakistan as respondents, the court was prayed to declare the move as unlawful and restrain the conducting of election in the districts where the delimitation process was questionable until a decision was reached on the petition.
Sattar also requested that union councils and committees should be formed in accordance with the population ratio of the districts.