LAHORE - The Lahore High Court on Monday ordered party-based elections in cantonment boards and directed the federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan to direct the returning officers to accept nomination papers on party basis from Tuesday (today).
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the LHC passed the order while hearing a number of petitions challenging non-party local government elections in cantonments across the Punjab. He made it clear that the local government elections would be held as per the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The judge also held that the candidates who had already filed their nomination papers would have the facility to revise the same by indicating their affiliations with any political party.
PTI Punjab President Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique had challenged the non-party elections in cantonment areas. As the proceedings commenced, the petitioners’ counsel told the judge that the LHC had already declared non-party elections as unconstitutional and Section 18 of Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, against fundamental rights in the light of articles 17(2) and 140A of the Constitution.
Deputy Attorney General Irfan Akram argued that the matter of local government elections had not been taken up by the apex court. He said the federal government and the ECP were bound to hold LG polls on April 25.
The DAG opposed the petitioners’ counsels, saying delimitation and announcement of LG polls was not an issue of the provinces; it was a subject of the federal government.
The petitioners’ counsels, however, said holding LG elections on party basis was a constitutional requirement. They said Section 14 of Cantonment Local Government Ordinance, 2002, denied political identity to the elected representatives of local government. They further said a person without political identity cannot meaningfully discharge political responsibilities and authority.
The lawyer-petitioner stated that without such identity capacity of an elected representative to asses and express preferences for policymaking and executive action is greatly impaired. Section 18 of the ordinance is contrary to the provisions of Article 140-A of the Constitution that curtails the right to political expression of elected representatives of local government, he added.
He contended the said provision conflicted with the obligation under Article 140-A (1) of the Constitution to devolve political responsibility and authority to elected representatives of local governments.
The petitioner prayed to the court to declare the non-party LG elections in the cantonment areas unconstitutional and Section 14 of the ordinance as beyond the legal power or authority of Article 17(2) and 140-A of the Constitution.
The petitioner also prayed to the court to direct the ECP to conduct the local bodies elections in cantonments on party basis in view of the constitutional mandate provided to it under Article 218(3) read with Article 220 of the Constitution.