KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has warned the provincial authorities concerned that they will have to pay cost if comments on a petition challenging provisions of the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2013 are not filed within three weeks as the provincial law officers sought ‘more’ time for a fourth time since December last.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar hearing a petition of the Jamaat-i-Islami became visibly irritated on Wednesday when additional advocate general Mustafa Mehesar requested for more time for filing comments on behalf of the respondent chief secretary on the matter.

The bench gave three weeks time to the chief secretary at the request of the provincial law officer “but with caution that in case comments are not still filed within the prescribed time, a cost of Rs10,000 shall be imposed on the officers responsible for such delay”. The hearing was adjourned to Oct 16.

The JI, represented by Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi, filed the petition through its city chief and one of its workers, who impleaded the chief secretary, the local government department secretary, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the federal law secretary as respondents.

The petitioner asked the court to declare the Sindh Local Government (Amendment Act) 2013, the Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2013 and the Sindh Local Government (Third amendment) Ordinance 2013 illegal, unreasonable and a colorable piece of legislation to the extent of mandatory requirement for contesting candidates.

The counsel said the petitioners were entitled to contesting local government elections for union councils and union committees in Sindh without forming/joining a panel of candidates as per Article 17 of the constitution. He asked the court to declare that the election of chairman and vice chairman by a panel of nine elected candidates by show of hands was in violation of Article 19.

Advocate Razvi also requested the court to restrain the respondents from holding local government elections in the province by implementing the impugned amendments to the act till the disposal of the petition. The JI counsel further requested the court to direct the respondents to hold election under the bio-metric system.

The same bench also heard the petition of Dr Muhammed Siddique Rathore, vice president of the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, who asked the court to direct the respondents to hold a census of the population of the province before holding local government elections The bench again expressed its dismay over the lethargic attitude of the respondents in filing their respective comments on the petition as the matter has been undecided since December last.

The court, however, by way of sheer indulgence, gave two more weeks to the respondents for their respective detailed and comprehensive comments with photocopies of the entire relevant record.

The bench also appointed Advocate Razvi amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter and adjourned the hearing to Oct 16.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014