PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday sought the Election Commission of Pakistan’s response to a petition against changes to their respective provincial assembly constituencies in Jan.

Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Mussarat Hilali issued notice to the ECP through its secretary after holding preliminary hearing into the petition jointly filed by five PTI MPAs from Mardan, including senior minister Atif Khan, Mohammad Abdul Salam, Mohammad Zahir Shah, Iftikhar Ali and Tufail Anjum.

The respondents in the petition are the ECP through its secretary and ECP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, through its provincial election commissioner.

PHC hears MPAs petition against changes to Mardan constituencies

The petitioners requested the court to set aside the ECP’s Jan 25 notification changing the provincial assembly’s constituencies in Mardan, including PK-49, PK- 50, PK- 52, PK-53 and PK-54.

Babar Khan Yousafzai, lawyer for the petitioners, said after the preliminary report on the delimitation of the National Assembly and provincial assembly constituencies was published on Mar 5, 2018, the exercise was challenged in the ECP by the residents of Mardan district, who insisted that the exercise was carried out in violation of the Elections Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017.

He said the amendments proposed by the applicants were dismissed by the ECP on Apr 7, 2018.

The lawyer said the dismissal order was challenged in the Peshawar High Court through different petitions, which were consolidated by the court before an order was passed on Jul 10, 2018, referring the cases back to the ECP for fresh decision.

Mr Yousafzai said the petitioners had never remained a party to the proceedings.

He added that on the direction of the high court after the general elections were held, the ECP acting on the whims of applicants on Jan 25 ordered amendments to the constituencies in question.

The lawyer said his clients being MPAs of those constituencies were not given any notice by the ECP beforehand.

He said the petitioners were extremely aggrieved of the ECP order as no right of audience was given to them to protect the rights of the people of their constituencies.

The lawyer said the ECP order had exceeded the scope of Section 20 of the Elections Act, 2017.

The lawyer said after the holding of the general elections, the applications related to the delimitation of constituencies became infructuous as the ECP couldn’t amend constituencies for the next general elections at that stage.

He said amendments to the constituencies had also disturbed the population of Mardan district and made it cumbersome for the residents to identify their respective constituencies.

The lawyer said even if the constituencies had to be amended, at least notices should have been given to the petitioners, who were elected representatives from the district.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2019