LAHORE, Aug 10: The Lahore High Court is due to take up as objection case on Thursday a petition which seeks a direction to the chief election commissioner to hold local government elections on the basis of the electoral rolls prepared for general elections in 2002.

The petition was moved by advocate Mian Mohammad Hanif Tahir contending that the local government elections were being held on the basis of electoral rolls prepared in 2000-01 which were not updated and which deprived some 3.5 million voters in the Punjab and about 10 million voters in the country of exercising their right to franchise.

The petition was returned by the LHC registrar office with the objection that the matter agitated was not urgent in nature and that the petitioner had no locus standi in moving the issue for the adjudication by the high court.

Hanif Tahir later refiled the petition with the remarks that the local government polling for the first phase was being held on Aug 18 and for the second phase on Aug 25. Under the circumstances, the grievances aired in the petition must be addressed on top priority basis. As for the second objection, he said even a voter had the locus standi to raise such issues. Since he was an office-bearer of the People’s Party, he was under an obligation to seek legal recourse to defective and anomalous electoral arrangements.

The petitioner submitted that the Election Commission of Pakistan had revised the electoral rolls in 2002 by adding another 37.76 million voters in Punjab. The electoral rolls revised in 2000-01 did not include the same number of voters and depriving such a large number of people to vote, was not only a major legal anomaly but also violated the Constitution.