PESHAWAR: A member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Mahmood Ahmad Khan Bittani, on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking orders for extending the local body elections in the province beyond the 120 days time stipulated in the Elections Act, 2017, claiming that the provision in question don’t apply electoral exercises in the province.

The MPA, who belongs to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, filed the petition requesting the court to declare that no election process can be initiated under the Elections Act, 2017, in the absence of meeting requirements of KP Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, which provides for completing the required administrative actions within six months.

The petitioner further prays the court to declare that the initiation of electoral process for local bodies before the expiry of that mandatory time period was based on mala fide, illegal and is in essence pre-poll rigging.

He requested the court to direct the respondents including Election Commission of Pakistan and KP government to hold elections in accordance with KP Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, only after completion of requirement of Local Government Act, 2013.

Petition claims 120 days deadline for polls not applicable in KP

The petition filed through lawyer Ali Gohar Durrani said in pursuant to the KP Local Government Act (KPLGA), 2013, elections were held in Aug 2015 in the province.

It added that the four-year tenure of the elected persons expired on Aug 28, 2019.

The petitioner said the erstwhile Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), which had been merged with KP, didn’t have any system of local government.

He said the KPLGA was amended on numerous occasions and recently it was amended through the KPLG (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The petitioner said the latest amendment had brought about a complete paradigm shift from the 2013 Act to a system, which was almost alien to the original.

He said the amendment ended the three-tier LG system in the province and introduced a new two-tier system by abolishing the district tier and leaving only tehsil councils and village and neighbourhood councils intact.

The petitioner said in pursuant to the amendment Act, 2019, no delimitation had taken place. He added that a new section, 120-A, was introduced in KPLGA through the Amendment Act, while all needful administrative actions should be taken within six months of the enforcement of the Amendment Act but the government had so far not issued notification for the purpose.

The petitioner said until the six months time expired, the process for new elections couldn’t begin.

He said the 120 days period as envisaged in Section 219(4) of the Election Act, 2017, came into play when a term had been completed and that provision couldn’t be applied to polls in KP for two reasons: the erstwhile Fata had no system to begin with, so there was no case for term completion, while there was dissolution of system brought about by the Amendment Act.

The MPA said the Election Act, 2017, clearly declared that local body polls had to be dealt with under the relevant local government law, so the KP LGA would always take precedence and should be taken as the actual law to regulate the provisions in respect of LG, including its elections.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2019