HYDERABAD - The Sindh High Court here on Thursday served notices to Sindh government, Election Commission of Pakistan and Deputy Commissioner Mirpur Khas in a petition filed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) challenging delimitation of local government constituencies in Mirpur Khas district.
The respondents have been directed to submit reply till February 16. Advocate Dilawar Qureshi filed a petition accusing Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for pre-electoral rigging by shaping the constituencies in a way which best suited its electoral plans. The petitioners included MQM-P’s local leaders ex-MPA Zafar Ahmed Khan Kamali, Shafique Ahmed Arain, Muhammad Kamran and Abdul Saleem Khan. The petitioners claimed that a number of Dehs (Villages) like Khuth, Panhwarki, Phardo, Mubarak, Kaka, Manjri, Khandar and 9 others which were predominantly rural areas had been merged in the urban municipal corporation. They contended that the act amounted to violation of sections 8 to 14 of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.
They apprised that the DC Mirpurkhas issued a public notice for invitation of objections but it was not published in the mainstream newspapers because of which the stakeholders remained unaware about that development. Furthermore, the DC gave only three days to the public to file the objections, they added. They argued that the stakeholders should have been given ample time to review the new set up and file objections because demarcation and delimitation were complicated procedures.
“The whole process was done in a hasty manner under political influence of the [provincial] government,” they alleged. The lawyer contended that the rural areas of the District Council Mirpurkhas were in no way similar to the urban areas of the same district which were administered by the Municipal Committee Mirpurkhas. The areas falling in the district council chiefly consisted agricultural land which could also be seen from the satellite maps, the petitioners said. They alleged that the ruling party had gerrymandered the constituencies to elect its mayor in Mirpurkhas.
The lawyer informed that the Sindh Secretary Local Government on December 13, 2021, notified the Municipal Corporation Mirpurkhas (MCM) which also covered the areas falling in the limits of the existing Municipal Committee Mirpurkhas besides the district council.
They pleaded before the court that it should declare the December 13, 2021, notification illegal and to suspend its operation.
Earlier this week MQM-P also challenged expansion of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) to cover the areas falling under municipal committees Qasimabad and Tandojam, town committee Husri and district council Hyderabad in the HMC.