LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and PML-Q on Monday challenged the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 before the Lahore High Court, terming it repugnant to the Constitution.

Both the opposition parties mainly assailed the two new amendments to the ordinance wherein the manner to elect chairman and vice chairman of district council and municipal committee as well as mayor and deputy mayor of metropolitan corporation and municipal corporation had been changed from “secret ballot” to “by open division” (show of hands) and election of reserved seats had been substituted with nomination on the basis of proportional representation system of political parties’ list of candidates in order of priority, on the basis of total number of candidates of general seats secured by political party that deprived the independently elected members the right to elect the members against the reserved seats.

PTI leader Ishaq Khan Khaqwani and PML-Q information secretary Kamil Ali Agha filed the two identical petitions through Mubeenuddin Qazi advocate.

The parties also challenged the changed/reduced qualification criteria for the seats reserved for “technocrats” as well as absence of any requisite technical expertise for the candidates and ‘unjustified’ enhanced number of the reserved seats for “technocrats”, and “youth members”.

Term ‘show of hands’ mode of election repugnant to Constitution

They said that giving e retrospective effect to the amendments to the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 after the announcement of the schedule of election was a sheer malafide act on the part of the Punjab government.

Qazi advocate, in the petitions, contended that Article 226 of the Constitution specifically provided that all elections shall be held by secret ballot. Therefore, the election of the local government could not be held by any other mode except by the secret ballot as the LG polls were also held under the Constitution.

He stated that it was the constitutional mandate of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold fair and transparent election to the local governments in terms of Articles 140A and 218(3) and 219(d) of the Constitution.

The counsel said not only a full bench of the Lahore High Court but also the Supreme Court, through their judgments, had categorically held that the LG elections were to be conducted under the Constitution. Therefore, the amendments to the Punjab local government ordinance to the extent of substituting the mode of election for the seats of mayors and chairmen etc. from the “secret ballot” to “open division” were null and void being violation of Constitutional provisions.

The lawyer argued that secret ballot was a voting method to prevent attempts to influence the voter by intimidation. He said the secret ballot protected political privacy, curbing corruption to strength democratic process. By elimination of secret ballot, the government wanted to punish those who would vote “the wrong way” or reward those who would vote “the right way” as per their wishes. Secret ballot was a proper way of electing leadership whereas open division method was a vote for cash not vote for democracy, he added.

The counsel pleaded that the impugned amendments had been issued after the election schedule of the LG elections. However, he said, the government was illegally bent upon giving the amended provisions a retrospective effect and even requested the ECP to withdraw its schedule.

He prayed to the court to set aside the impugned amendments and restrain the ECP from holding upcoming election for reserved seats as well as seats for mayors and deputy mayors, chairmen and vice chairmen.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2016