ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court summoned on Tuesday 19 respondents named in an appeal moved by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against a high court decision setting aside the delimitation of union councils in Rawalpindi division ahead of the local government elections.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, issued notices to the respondents after Advocate Munir Paracha – representing the ECP – asked the court to decide the matter as soon as possible since local government elections were scheduled to be held on Dec 3.

On Oct 1, the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court had thrown out the new delimitation of union councils in the Rawalpindi division, a decision that many feared would hamper the elections if condoned by the apex court.

Identical challenges to the delimitation exercise were filed by 19 petitioners, including former Murree UC nazims Sajid Abbasi and Arshad Nawaz. Former Murree zila nazim Haroon Abbasi and others had also challenged the delimitations of Jawa, Ghora Gali and other areas.

ECP maintains high court judge misinterpreted the law

In its appeal, the ECP has argued before the Supreme Court that a single judge of the high court misinterpreted the provisions of the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2013 and wrongly recorded the finding in its order that despite the bar in Section 10-A of PLGA the high court has the jurisdiction to review or correct the delimitation of union councils.

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

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

Thus, it was clear that the government could only determine the number of union councils, but the delimitation was 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. The court postponed further proceedings in the matter for a week.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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