ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s Friday’s proceedings clearly exposed reluctance of the governments of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to hold local bodies elections after their law officers came up with excuses for not completing the ground work for the polls.

The apparent foot dragging by the three provinces left a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk with no option but to ask Attorney General Salman Butt and the provincial law officers to inform the court by Oct 14 about measures taken to implement its March 20 order to hold the polls by Nov 15.

Also read: A big if in KP local government election plan

Former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani had declared that the absence of local government system for over nine years was against the Constitution and vested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the authority to carry out delimitation of constituencies and hold the elections in Sindh and Punjab by Nov 15. The KP government was directed to complete arrangements and hold the polls as early as possible. The delimitation process had already been completed in the province.

The Balochistan government had held the local bodies elections on Dec 7 last year.

On Friday, Assistant Advocate General of Sindh Qasim Mir Jath submitted a draft law which would allow the ECP to carry out delimitation of wards in the province.

The bench asked the officer why the provincial government failed to adopt the law during several months that had elapsed.

When Mir Jath offered apology, the bench said he should seek forgiveness from the Constitution, and not from the court.

By not holding the elections, the provinces were continuously violating the Constitution, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, a member of the bench, observed.

The chief justice said he wondered why the governments always waited for court orders instead of doing things on their own.

Mir Jath said the draft law was ready and an ordinance would be promulgated within a week.

But the court was not satisfied and said that even if the ordinance was promulgated in a week allowing the ECP to conduct delimitation in Sindh, the elections did not appear to be possible within the deadline set by the court.

Advocate General of KP Abdul Lateef Yousufzai said the court’s judgment allowing the ECP to conduct delimitation had created confusion because the exercise if carried out by the province on its own would not be legal.

Besides, he added, the ECP had not responded to KP’s request to hold the elections in a phased manner to ensure security and the use of biometric system.

But the bench said the apex court’s judgment concerned only Sindh and Punjab and regretted that KP had kept silence although it had issued a notification after completing the delimitation process.

The province could have approached the Supreme Court if there was any confusion over the judgment, the bench said, adding that the verdict was issued because delimitations in Sindh and Punjab had been challenged in high courts which declared these illegal.

The delimitation in KP was never challenged and, therefore, the province should have held the elections by now, the court observed.

“There is a general perception that the provincial governments do not want to hold the local government elections,” it said.

Additional Advocate General of Punjab Razzaq A. Mirza further puzzled the court when he said the federal government had not responded to a letter of the provincial government stating that it could vest the ECP with the authority to carry out delimitation only if the centre amended the relevant laws.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2014