ECP facilitated gerrymandering of constituencies, SHC told

Karachi
The Sindh High Court observed on Saturday that functionaries of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not adhere to the guidelines for maintaining territorial unity, distinction between urban and rural areas in several constituencies while carrying out delimitation of local bodies’ constituencies.
Issuing a short order on petitions against delimitation process of local bodies’ constituencies, the SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Faisal Arab observed that the changes in boundaries of constituencies appeared to have been conducted in an arbitrary manner to “facilitate gerrymandering”.
The bench observed that since election dates had been announced, to be able to correct only the patent irregularities without disturbing the polling schedule, only such alterations and modifications should be allowed in constituencies in which the ECP had acted arbitrarily and expeditiously in exercise of its power conferred under Section 10 (A) of the Delimitation of Constituencies Act, by only looking at the existing boundaries of a disputed constituency.
The court directed that the ECP while conducting the exercise of impugned delimitation of a council in which a territorial unity did not appear to have been maintained, then the boundaries of such council should be adjusted to bring it in consonance with the established criteria of delimitation as provided in Section 10(3) of the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), 2013.
The court observed that areas of a council which were rural at the time when the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued the short order on March 20, 2014, but were subsequently annexed with any council of an urban area — or vice versa through the process of the impugned delimitation — shall be undone and be restored to their former states. Meanwhile, fresh delimitation will be carried out on these constituencies within five working days. The court also observed that no fresh nominations to contest in the local bodies’ election can be allowed in any council, boundaries of which are revised by the ECP pursuant to this order of the court.
The court made it clear since the process of local government elections was to be completed on the schedule already announced in terms of Supreme Court judgment, the dates of polling under no circumstance shall be disturbed.
The court, however, pointed out that the initiation of the process of delimitation of the constituencies for local government election through notifications issued by the provincial government under Section 10 of the SLGA 2013 and 10(3) was within its confines and not a violation.
The contention of the petitioners were that delimitation of local bodies constituencies had been made in several districts of the province in violation of the SLGA 2013, laws of delimitation of constituencies and orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and others had filed several identical petitions against delimitation of union councils and committees in different districts of the province.
Muttahida MNA Farooq Sattar, MPA Syed Sardar Ahmed and others in their petitions had challenged the delimitation process for local government union councils and committees in Malir, Korangi, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Tando Allahyar and Naushero Feroz districts, stating that the impugned notifications regarding changes in boundaries of several town and councils were unlawful because they were aimed at manipulating the electoral college.
The petitioners’ counsels, Farogh Naseem, Mureed Ali Shah, Haq Nawaz Talpur and others, submitted that the impugned exercise of delimitation was illegal as the union councils and committees were unlawfully merged with other districts without giving any procedures for such shifting.
They submitted that the delimitation process was not conducted by the ECP and several urban areas had been included in rural areas of the said councils.
The petitioners submitted that delimitations of the constituencies were illegal since the provincial government had exhibited partiality in the process to gain political benefits. They alleged that the Sindh government had fixed the number of union councils in each district rather than deciding them on the basis of population.
They submitted that transparency in delimitation of constituencies was necessary for fair and transparent local bodies election, however, the Sindh government had acted partially while conducting the delimitation of councils and committees in several districts. They said the entire scheme of empowering the ECP to carryout delimitation of the constituencies had become meaningless and irrelevant when the Sindh government had reserved the right to decide the objections to delimitation of the constituencies for itself.
They also requested the court to constitute union councils and committees as per the population ratio of the constituencies in the said districts.
The petitioners cited the secretary of Sindh local government department, provincial census commissioner, commissioner Karachi and the ECP as respondents and requested the court to declare the notifications for delimitation to the extent of some union councils and committees of Malir, Korangi, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nausheroferoz and other districts to be unlawful and restrain holding of election there till decision of the petition.
The petitions were opposed by the provincial government on grounds that they were not maintainable since the process of election had started and the petitioners should have availed the proper forum to redress their grievances.