ISLAMABAD: With just four days to go until hopeful candidates begin filing their nomination papers, one of the country’s main political parties has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the holding of the upcoming local government elections in the country’s 43 cantonment areas on a non-party basis.

Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) General Secretary Raja Pervez Ashraf challenged Section 61 of the Cantonment (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 through a petition which stipulates that the local government elections be held on a non-party basis. Senior counsel Aitzaz Ahsan is representing the former PM.

Know more: ECP announces schedule for local body elections

After marathon proceedings in the Supreme Court earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had reluctantly submitted an election schedule for polls in the cantonment boards on April 25. The returning officers will accept nomination papers from March 29 to 31.

The PPP has asked the apex court that the matter it has raised in the petition relates to the fundamental rights of the public at large and thus requires immediate consideration and determination of the court, especially when all the four provinces are involved and when the Supreme Court has already been hearing the local government election case. In fact, elections are being held in compliance with the orders passed by the apex court, the petition argues.

Millions of people will cast their vote in the elections for offices which are political and require political considerations, therefore, political parties can neither be refused the right to field their candidates, nor can their workers – who are citizens of this country – be refused the right to cast their votes on the basis of political affiliations, the petition maintains.

Section 61 of the ordinance, which requires elections on a non-party basis, has been termed ultra vires of the letter and spirit of the Constitution in the petition. Elections on non-party basis also violate the legal and fundamental rights of the political parties, the petitioner argues.

“The cantonment areas cannot be considered a ‘no-go zone’ to exclude the political parties from such participation,” the petition reads. It says that this would be against the letter and spirit of election laws and the fundamental rights of the citizens as a whole.

It is the political parties which campaign for candidates, who in turn pursue the political agenda of that party, the petition argues.

This brings in the ‘political symbol’ of the party into play, which cannot be allocated unless elections are held on the party basis.

Symbols are the very soul of the election campaign and without them the exercise of franchise by the majority of the citizens would be impossible, it said.

If parties are excluded, these symbols are excluded and hence the people are deprived of a long-standing vote of their choice of party – whosoever is the candidate, the petition argued.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2015

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