ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has challenged a judgment of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench, which set aside the delimitation of union councils of villages — such as Kotli Sattian and Murree — in the district Rawalpindi.

The appeal was instituted before the Supreme Court by ECP. On Oct 8, the court had declared the new delimitation of union councils null and void. These included areas such as Darnoin, Dheer Gran and Korina Kalan in Tehsil Kotli Sattian; Seribari, Dhall and Ghora Gali in Tehsil Murree, Hayyal Sharif and Banda Nagial etc.

The high court had held that the power to create or abolish a union council were outside the ECP’s jurisdiction and since the commission had exceeded its powers and jurisdiction, the process of delimitation in these villages must be carried out afresh. The high court had also asked ECP to announce a new election schedule for local government elections in these areas after reinitiating the process of delimitation.

Also read: Delimitation of union councils set aside

But on Nov 5, while deciding similar petitions, the Supreme Court had held that the authority to delimit the number of union councils and wards for the local government elections rested only with the ECP.

Petition filed in SC maintains that ECP is the only body competent to carry out delimitation

Filed through Advocate Muhammad Munir Paracha, the commission’s fresh appeal argues that a single judge of the high court had misinterpreted the provisions of the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2013 and wrongly recorded the finding that, despite a bar in Section 10-A of the PLGA, the high court had the jurisdiction to review or correct the delimitation of the union council.

Section 8(2) of PLGA provides that after demarcation of the local governments and determination of the union councils and wards, it is ECP which will delimit the union councils and wards, the petition maintained.

The appeal argued that the high court had failed to properly comprehend the scheme of the election prescribed by the law, since the only power vested with the government under section 7 was to determine the number of union councils in a metropolitan corporation, a municipal corporation, a district council and the wards of a municipal committee.

It is clear that the government can only determine the number of union councils, but delimitation is to be carried out by ECP, therefore the verdict of the high court is based on a misunderstanding of the PLGA scheme, the appeal argued.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2015