ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed the petitions filed by local MNA of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Asad Umar and others seeking party-based elections and the schedule of upcoming local bodies elections in the federal capital.

A division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq on Tuesday reserved the order on the maintainability of the petition after preliminary hearings.

The court observed that the matter related to the local government elections is sub judice before the Supreme Court. The division bench further observed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued the schedule in pursuance of the order of the apex court. However, the bench was of the view that the parties may approach the Supreme Court if they have some reservation over local bodies elections.

While presenting arguments, one of the counsel said that the ECP issued the schedule for the LG elections last week despite the fact that the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) LG bill had not been approved by the Senate. The counsel argued that elections in the absence of a law would be illegal.

Shuaib Shaheen, counsel for PTI’s lawmaker Asad Umar, argued over holding elections on party basis.

Counsel for the federal government Advocate General (AG) Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf replied that the elections were being conducted on the Supreme Court’s orders and are legal.

Several citizens have gone to court saying that the delimitation process initiated by the ECP for LG elections is illegal and unconstitutional until the bill becomes law. They have also challenged the April 27 notification of the interior ministry regarding demarcation and structure of the local government in ICT.

One of the petitions states that Article 140-A of the Constitution does not empower the parliament to legislate local government laws for ICT as the article only mentions the provinces and the ICT is an independent federating unit separated from the provinces.

The petitioners contended that the article requires each province to establish a LG system, which cannot be deemed to be applicable to ICT, without the insertion of the terms ‘ICT’ or ‘Federal Territory’ in the law through a constitutional amendment.

Some residents of the capital have petitioned the IHC requesting it to declare the notification of the Ministry of Interior regarding demarcation and declaration of the local governments in the ICT and 79 Union Councils for the entire ICT as illegal.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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