Imran welcomes IHC decision on LG polls.

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE    -    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold local bodies elections in the federal capital on December 31 as per its schedule.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir conducted hearing of the identical petitions moved by Pakistan Tehrirk-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Nawaz Awan through his counsels Sardar Taimoor Aslam Khan Advocate and Mudassar Abbas Advocate and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Mian Aslam challenging the ECP’s notification to postpone the local bodies elections in the federal capital which were scheduled to take place on December 31.
In its short written order, the IHC bench said that for reasons to be recorded separately, both the writ petitions are allowed. It added, “Consequently, the impugned order dated 27.12.2022 and the impugned notification dated 19.12.2022 are set aside. The Election Commission of Pakistan is directed to hold the local government elections in the Islamabad Cap­ital Territory as per the sched­ule already announced i.e. on 31.12.2022.” “The federal gov­ernment is directed to provide all assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan for con­ducting the local bodies’ elec­tions as mandated by the Con­stitution,” said the IHC bench.

Earlier, the court reserved the verdict and expressed dis­pleasure over the federal gov­ernment’s attitude and voiced its reservations over the waste of money if the polls were not held on time.

During the hearing, Addition­al Attorney-General of Pakistan Munawar Iqbal Dogal informed the court that the federal gov­ernment and ECP officials held a meeting earlier in the day. He added that due to a shortage of time, they could not take into account the comments. 

At this, the bench asked that is the federal government so in­competent that it cannot send its response to a petition. In re­sponse, the AAG said that even if the government readies an answer, it cannot be forwarded without approval from the Min­istry of Law and Justice.

Then, Justice Arbab asked what was the reason behind in­creasing the number of UCs 12 days prior to the elections and also questioned whether the government could promise to hold the polls or not.

The AAG replied that it is the government’s prerogative whether it wants to hold the polls. The bench asked that how many times this power has been exercised in 2022. The AAG told the court that the power has been exercised twice this year.

In his arguments, DG Election Commission (Law) informed the court that the commission had carried out many undertak­ings for conducting local gov­ernment polls.

The IHC judge asked from the official to inform the court that what have ECP processed so far since June 30. The ECP offi­cials said that they announced the local government elections schedule for December 31 and printing of ballot paper and the training of the polling staff has been completed. 

Justice Tahir asked from the DG ECP that can you not hold the polls right away”. The DG re­plied that it was possible to hold local elections in 7-10 days. He added that ballot papers were supplied to the polling stations two days before the polls, while security arrangements also needed to be taken care of.

Justice Tahir remarked that security arrangements are al­ways in place in Islamabad. He added that if elections did not take place the polling materi­al would go to waste and asked that who would be responsible for that. The DG answered that the one who issued the notifica­tion would be to blame.

In this matter, the petitioner assailed order of the ECP dated 27-12-2022, whereby the Local Government Election in Islam­abad Capital Territory sched­uled for 31-12-2022, have been postponed. 

The counsel for the petitioner while explaining the brief back­ground of the matter stated that earlier in exercise of pow­ers conferred under sub-section (1) of section 6 of the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Govern­ment Act, 2015 (“Act of 2015”) issued notification, dated 19-05-2015, whereby determining the number of Union Councils as 50. The said notification was subsequently withdrawn on 18-05-2021 without issuing a new notification. 

He added that in compli­ance with the judgment, dat­ed 15-03- 2021, of the august Supreme Court, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on 02-06-2022 announced the election schedule relying on the earlier notification of 50 UCs. 

The petitioner said that af­ter fresh delimitation exercise, the number of Union Council was increased to 101. Thereaf­ter, the Commission announced the election schedule for 31-12-2022 and on 18-12- 2022, a summary was forwarded to the Federal Cabinet mention­ing that the Administrator Local Government has informed that the number of UCs has been de­termined on the basis of cen­sus 2017 and recommended increase of UCs to 125 on the ground that the population of ICT has been increased. 

He continued that based on the said summary, the number of UCs has been increased to 125 vide notification, dated 19-12-2022. A copy of this notifica­tion was endorsed to the Com­mission. On 20-12-2022, the Commission in exercise of pow­ers under Article 140-A(2), Ar­ticle 218(3), Article 219(d) and Article 222 of the Constitution read with section 219 of the Election Act, 2017 and all oth­er enabling provisions decid­ed to continue with the election process on the ground that noti­fication dated 19-12- 2022 was issued without concurrence of the Commission as required un­der section 4(4) of the ICT Local Government Act, 2015. 

However, to the utter surprise of the petitioner, the Commis­sion while affording an opportu­nity to the applicants/petition­ers in W.P. No.4787/2022 and 4809/2022 decided to post­pone the elections scheduled for 31-12-2022 without men­tioning any timeline for con­ducting election through the im­pugned order.

The counsel argued that de­termination of 101 UCs was based on the census of 2017 and no new census has been conducted thereafter, therefore, the proposal that population in the ICT has increased after the census is hypothetical and not based on actual facts and the no­tification issued on such basis is without lawful authority and ju­risdiction. He further argued that election schedule was an­nounced, ballot boxes and bal­lot papers were distributed, or­ders relating to elections duties were passed, however, the elec­tion schedule was postponed at the verge of the elections, which is violative of judgment of the august Supreme Court and this Court and the rights of the in­habitants of ICT.

Meanwhile, Following the di­rectives of the Islamabad High Court to the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan to conduct Lo­cal Government polls today (December 31) in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rana Sanaul­lah said Friday that the feder­al government was not in a po­sition to hold local government elections in Islamabad.

“We respect the court [Islam­abad High Court], but holding the elections is not possible as the arrangements cannot be made in such a short period,” the federal minister told a pri­vate TV channel. He added that as many as 1,000 polling sta­tions needed security, election material is still not deployed at the stations and the polling staff will also be needed. “This isn’t possible.” The minister also added that since the “ground re­alities” do not permit the gov­ernment to ensure the polls take place, the centre was go­ing to file an intra-court appeal against the order.

“The order was issued in the evening after office hours. How is it possible to make the ar­rangements for the [elections]? What can be a more strong rea­son than this,” Sanaullah said when asked about what his hopes were about the petition’s acceptance.

The minister said he was not surprised by the order, but not­ed that directions should be “implementable” and the latest IHC order will ensure “that the elections do not take place”.

Sanaullah said a new sched­ule should be issued for the polls, and there is no other way to hold the elections as he ruled out assisting the election commission.

“It isn’t possible [to assist] the commission. We cannot provide security in such a short time period for 1,000 polling sta­tions. Islamabad Police are not enough as will need to deploy Rangers and FC will have to be called in,” he added. Sanaullah said he foresees the polls taking place in the next three to four months as the new delimitation will take time.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan yesterday wel­comed the Islamabad High Court’s decision directing the Election Commission of Paki­stan to hold local government elections in the federal capital on December 30 and urged the residents of Islamabad to fully participate in the polls in order to inflict crushing defeat to the ruling alliance.

In a special congratulato­ry message to the people of the federal capital on Friday, the PTI chief said that the peo­ple have got an opportunity to elect their local government representatives in the light of the IHC decision.

Ex-premier Khan claimed that it was really unfortunate that the ECP always worked as a fa­cilitator of the corrupt rulers imposed on the country, as the electoral watchdog often gave decisions against democracy just to “benefit these thieves.”

He went on to say that the courts have always rejected all the illegal decisions taken by the Election Commission.