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| August 18, 2005 | Thursday | Rajab 12, 1426 |
SHC stops polling in 15 new UCs of Ghotki
KARACHI, Aug 17: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday barred the Election Commission from holding local body elections in 15 newly-created union councils of the Ghotki district.
Allowing a petition moved by then opposition members of district and taluka councils, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, set aside the impugned provincial government notifications creating the new councils. The councils had been carved out of seven existing councils in Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo and Khangarh talukas.
Declaring the notifications as of no legal effect, the bench asked the Election Commission to hold elections either on the basis of pre-existing union councils or ‘establish union councils in accordance with the law’. The resolutions passed by the respective union councils and the consequential notifications issued by the provincial government ‘are without lawful authority’, the bench declared in its short order, the reasons for which are to be recorded later.
The petitioners submitted that the creation of new councils was in violation of provisions of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, particularly its sections 6, 11 and 39. They said resolutions had been adopted without notifying agenda, public objections had not been invited, new councils were of unequal size and the whole exercise was meant to favour the ruling party.
Under section 6 of the ordinance, the area of a union council must comprise a contiguous territory. It should embrace a whole number of Tapedari circles or a Tapedari circle may contain a number of councils and the population of councils within a district should more or less be uniform.
Section 11 of the SLGO, entitled ‘Alteration of Local Areas’, stipulates: “(1) Any two or more adjoining unions within a taluka or adjoining talukas within a district may, after having invited public objections through a resolution, during the third year of their being in office, passed by two-thirds majority of the total membership of each of the relevant union councils or, as the case may be, taluka councils make a proposal to the government for a change in their respective boundaries subject to the conditions that no revenue estate shall be divided and the size of population in the unions shall, as far as possible, close to the average population of unions within a district.”
“(2) The government may, subject to previous publication, notify the change in the boundaries of the unions, talukas or towns.”
Meanwhile, the bench allowed Chaudhry Afzal and Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar to contest polls from union council-10, Daur, Nawabshah.
Our Sukkur Correspondent adds: Three hundred candidates for seats for union council nazim, naib nazim and councillors will be affected due to the cancellation of the notifications regarding the increase of union councils in Ghotki by the SHC.
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