ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Tuesday recommended party-based elections in the federal capital.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, held with former interior minister Rehman Malik in the chair, considered the draft of the local government law for Islamabad already passed by the National Assembly.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Rehman Malik said the Lahore High Court’s judgment ordering holding of party-based elections had attained finality as the same had not been challenged before the Supreme Court. He said holding non-party polls would be a violation of the high court’s orders.

He said the Supreme Court, in its judgment, had asked the ECP to announce the schedule in anticipation of a legislation adding that the committee had advised the ECP to go into review and a petition had already been filed by it. He said the government had been asked by the panel to become a party in the case within three days.

He said a representative of the government proposed a blanket cover to all actions so far taken by the ECP in connection with the LG elections in the absence of a law, but the proposal was turned down by the committee.

He said a report, spread over 250 pages, had been prepared by the committee in which various amendments to the law were proposed. He said the committee had recommended appropriate division of powers between the Capital Development Authority and the proposed metropolitan corporation.

The committee will now submit a report to the Senate for consideration. The Senate is now set to adopt the bill passed by the National Assembly with certain amendments. The bill adopted with amendments will then be sent to the National Assembly and if the assembly agrees with the amendments, the bill will stand passed and sent to the president for assent. However, if the National Assembly disagrees with the amendments, a joint session of the parliament will have to be convened to decide.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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