SHC dismisses govt plea for suspension of secret ballot order

Karachi

The Sindh High Court dismissed on Tuesday an application of the provincial government seeking suspension of its order for holding elections to mayoral positions through secret balloting.

The government had requested the high court to suspend the operation of its judgment for 15 days so that it could approach the Supreme Court.

The judgment declared as unconstitutional an amendment to the local government law that had replaced the secret ballot procedure with a show of hands for electing mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen and other local government office-holders.

The advocate general filed an appeal against the order in the Supreme Court on February 13 and did not press his present application.

A division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi observed that since the respondents had sought a remedy from the Supreme Court, the application had become infructuous and dismissed it.

Last week, the high court had declared the amendment against secret balloting as unlawful and ultra vires the constitution. The election commission was directed to fix the date for conducting the elections of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice-chairmen of the councils in the province.

The challenge to the amendment had come from the MQM and the PML-F.

KWSB ex-MD’s bail

The SHC extended for one week pre-arrest interim bail of a former managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Hashim Raza Zaidi, in a NAB inquiry into the allotment of 16 acres of land on fake documents.

Zaidi submitted in a petition that NAB had issued a notice with regard to inquiry into the allotment of 16 acres for the Ahsan Dreamland Housing Project on fake documents in 2005. 

The petitioner, who was then executive district officer revenue, said he had nothing to do with allotment of the land.

The court directed the NAB counsel to submit comments, and extended Zaidi’s interim protective bail till February 23.