KARACHI: A controversy between the Sindh government and the Election Commission of Pakistan over the delimitation of some local government constituencies was finally resolved on Tuesday when the provincial government withdrew its petition against the revised delimitation in the Sindh High Court, bringing the confusion over the holding of LG polls to an end.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Faisal Arab dismissed the provincial government’s petition after its counsel, Advocate Farooq H. Naek, informed the court that the government did not want to press its petition as the matter had been amicably resolved.

He submitted that a joint strategy was adopted by the provincial government and the ECP to resolve the controversy so that the LG polls were not delayed for any reason in the province.

The bench dismissed the petition when it was not pressed by the petitioner and ordered that a separate petition be filed in the court in case there were any objections to the joint strategy of the provincial government and the ECP.

According to the ECP’s preliminary list of LG constituencies, there are 355 union committees and 1,131 union councils in the province. Of them, 213 union committees and 22 union councils fall within Karachi’s six district municipal corporations (DMCs) and the Karachi District Council (KDC), respectively.

Earlier, a joint statement of the ECP and the Sindh government was placed before the bench.

It said the status of 23 union councils in 11 districts of the province would not be changed, and fresh elections would be held in the newly created councils in seven districts.

Advocate Naek told the judges that there would be no impact on town committee or municipal committee elections in the seven districts — Khairpur, Sanghar, Ghotki, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar — and fresh elections would be held in the newly created constituencies.

He said the row over the delimitation of some local government constituencies had been amicably resolved and polls for only 11 councils would be rescheduled due to newly created union councils.

The SHC had on Sept 18 cancelled the delimitation of certain constituencies made by the provincial government for the upcoming local government elections ordering the ECP to revise them within five days.

According to the Sindh government, the ECP did not adhere to the guidelines with regard to territorial unity/distinctions between urban and rural areas in several constituencies while carrying out delimitation.

In the government petition, the local government secretary stated that pursuant to the high court’s order a committee headed by the provincial election commissioner had been constituted. It recommended certain changes in the delimitation of some electoral constituencies and abolished certain councils.

The secretary added that the provincial government opposed the changes on the ground that the election schedule had already been announced and, therefore, delimitation at this stage would affect the election process. But the ECP asked the chief secretary to notify the revised constituencies.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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