ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday to present reports about preliminary measures being taken by them for holding local government elections in the province.

The order by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk came against the backdrop of a report submitted by the ECP after a meeting with the provincial government that said that holding local bodies elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not possible before March next year due to anomalies in the law and rules which the province needed to rectify.

The report was submitted in response to earlier directives of the court to the provincial government to hold a meeting with the ECP and chalk out a plan for the elections.

Advocate Muhammad Akram Sheikh, representing the ECP, said preliminary preparations and making arrangements for a biometric system for the elections in the province would take at least five months.

The court ordered the ECP and the provincial government to complete the process and submit a comprehensive report within a month so that the commission could announce the date for the elections.

It also ordered the governments of the Punjab and Sindh to complete legislations for the delimitation of constituencies in the provinces by Oct 30.

Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt said the federal government had promulgated two ordinances authorising the ECP to delimit constituencies and prepare electoral rolls in accordance with the March 20 judgment of the court.

Punjab’s Additional Advocate General Razzaq A. Mirza said an ordinance amending the local government laws would soon be tabled in the Punjab Assembly.

Mir Qasim Jath, representing the Sindh government, informed the court that a bill pertaining to local bodies’ elections would be tabled in the Sindh Assembly.

The court was informed that the authority to delimit constituencies in Sindh and Punjab would be given to the ECP after the approval by the assemblies.

Advocate Sheikh argued that the demarcation of constituencies in 45 days was not reasonable and the process would take at least six months.

The court observed that it would consider the commission’s request for extending the period for delimitation after Sindh and Punjab would complete the legislative process. The case will now be taken up on Oct 30.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014