KARACHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Shahryar Mahar has said the Pakistan Peoples Party government through its recently passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2014 tried to circumvent court directives by keeping the power of creation of new union councils and union committees with itself and at the same time giving the election commission the power to delimit the union councils and union committees.

Mr Shahryar, who is also a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, told Dawn on Wednesday that the amended act rather than facilitating the election process would create confusion that the government could use in its favour, as the government had already done away with most clauses that dealt with delimitation.

He said they replaced the words of marginal note from delimitation of the union councils to creation of union councils in Section 10 of the law but they did not give this power to the election commission that was still with the government.

Mr Mahar said they would create new boundaries that suited them under the pretext of creating new union councils. In other words, he added, they ‘clearly hoodwinked’ court orders.

The decision was made by a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, while hearing a petition of the Election Commission of Pakistan against a Lahore High Court judgement in which the poll body was directed to conduct delimitation in Punjab.

When the Sindh Local Government Bill, 2013 was tabled in the house for consideration, he said, he had submitted an amendment to Section 11 regarding the delimitation of constituencies for local government elections. He argued that since the party making the law was also the ruling party and would also be contesting the LG elections, they should not be involved in the process of elections, considering the legal precept that one could not be a judge in one’s own case. But they outvoted the amendment and passed the bill with the provision that the government would carry out the delimitation, he added.

However, after the interference of courts they had to do away with this arrangement, he said. Through the bill they tried to keep the power of creation of new councils and union committees with itself and at the same time giving election commission the power to delimit the union councils and union committees, he said.

The amendment to the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 was effected in the light of the verdict given by the apex court on March 19 by striking down Punjab government’s authority to delimit constituencies for LG elections, authorising the Election Commission of Pakistan instead to undertake the gigantic task.

The apex court bench directed both the federal and provincial governments to carry out appropriate legislation to empower the ECP to carry out the delimitation process for LG polls.

“This exercise should be completed within a period of five months and the Election Commission of Pakistan shall thereafter take requisite measures to carry out the process of delimitation of constituencies for the Local Government expeditiously so as to complete the same within a period of 45 days of the enactment/amendments in laws in terms of this order,” the court stated in its order.

Taking a strict stance on the delay in LG polls for over nine years, the bench observed that the delay amounted to violation of the constitution.

Subsequently, the court set Nov 15, 2014 for the announcement of an election schedule and completing the process required for holding the polls.

The bench declared that Sections 8 to 10 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013 and the relevant rules framed thereunder were ultra vires of the constitution in so far as they empowered the provincial government to carry out the delimitation of the constituencies for the polls.

Referring to Article 140A, the court said that the power to hold local government elections was vested in the ECP, which under Article 218(3) has been mandated to “organise and conduct the election and to make such arrangements as are necessary to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, and that corrupt practices are guarded against, the power to carry out such delimitation should vest with the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

During the hearing, Advocate General of Punjab Mustafa Ramday told the bench that the provincial government would comply with the court orders.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2014