ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has summoned Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt to help it decide whether it should press for contempt charges against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for breaching its earlier directives of holding local government elections in all 43 cantonment boards of the country.

“We are deliberately exercising caution and restraint by not issuing contempt notices to the chief executive, but the court will not show reluctance in fulfilling its constitutional obligations if it is established that judgment was flouted,” observed a two-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja on Friday.

The case will be taken up on Tuesday.

Also read: SC dismayed over attempts to prolong holding of LG polls in cantonment areas

“This time it has become necessary to prosecute someone,” the court observed while hearing a contempt of court petition filed by former vice president of the Quetta cantonment board Advocate Raja Rab Nawaz against the chief executive for not implementing the court’s March 19, 2014 and July 5, 2013 judgments. The verdicts had vested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the authority of carrying out delimitation of constituencies and then conducting local bodies’ polls in the provinces and cantonment boards. The court had said the absence of local bodies was against the Constitution and law.

The court had in several proceedings accepted the government’s request to extend the deadline for holding the elections in cantonment areas. It had also proceeded against former defence secretary retired Lt Gen Asif Yasin Malik under contempt charges for not honouring his undertaking to hold the elections in cantonment areas by Sept 15, 2013.

Know more: SC orders local govt polls in cantonments

On March 19 last year, the apex court had issued a judgment empowering the ECP to complete legislative process within five months and then hold the elections by Nov 15, 2014.

Balochistan was the only province which conducted the elections within the deadline.

After the judgment, the contempt notice issued to the former defence secretary was discharged.

There was no ambiguity in the Constitution after the passage of 18th Amendment about devolution of power to citizens, Justice Khawaja observed while dictating an order on Friday. He expressed displeasure over the rulers’ perceived reluctance to empower people by devolving the authority to the lowest tier of representation.

“The power is restricted and concentrated only to Islamabad and the four provincial capitals,” the court regretted. After the 18th Amendment, the court emphasised, the Constitution had empowered and made the ECP duty bound to hold not only the general elections but also local government elections in the country. Articles 219 and 220 of the Constitution delegate all executive authorities to the federation and the provinces to assist the ECP in discharging its function of holding elections.

In addition, the court order said, Article 222, which dealt with electoral rolls and conduct of elections, envisaged that delimitation of wards should be carried out by the commission. Thus it is clear that the duty imposed on the ECP under the Constitution obligates the commission to perform all legislative and executive functions.

“The legislations done by the provinces cannot stop or bar the commission from performing its duty of holding the local government polls,” the court observed.

It again emphasised that the empowerment of people was the main objective of the local bodies’ elections, but for the last five years, after the passage of 18th Amendment, citizens had been deprived of the power to exercise the right to franchise.

Senior counsel Akram Sheikh, representing the ECP, said he honestly felt a lack of willingness on part of the provinces and requested the court to bind them to assist the commission in holding the polls.

But the court expressed its surprise that the commission was pleading that the provinces be asked to carry out a legislation empowering it to conduct delimitation of wards before holding the elections and said the Constitution had mandated the ECP with the authority and, therefore, it could not be stopped from holding the elections even if the provinces adopted defective legislations.

No one had the right to stop the commission from holding the elections, or create hurdle in its way, even if it announced the election schedule today, Justice Khawaja observed.

“For how many times the ECP keeps on coming before the Supreme Court to seek the same direction of empowering it to hold the elections,” the court regretted.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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