ABBOTTABAD: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench on Friday released the detailed verdict on petitions against the schedule of the second phase of local body elections in the province.

Justice Ibrahim Khan and Justice Shakil Ahmad ordered the rescheduling of the March 27 polls until after the Islamic month of Ramazan or the normalisation of the weather in snowbound areas.

The bench also referred to the letters of the provincial chief secretary and the secretary of the coordination unit at the local government department to the Election Commission of Pakistan as well as the report of the Met Department’s director-general about the forecast of heavy snowfall and rain and the subsequent accumulation of snow on link roads and mountains of valleys in Galiyat, Upper Dir and Upper Kohistan areas until the last week of March.

The Met Department DG’s report said the March rainfall accompanied by strong winds and landslide and the mid-April melting of snow would ‘render it difficult to manage communication and transportation to these areas’ for the second phase of the local body elections.

The court declared that the executive had the responsibility to ensure that the law and order situation is not disturbed or weather conditions of the area, where elections are to be held, are normal.

“Under these circumstances, we are of the view that a fair, free and transparent election is not possible in the aforementioned disturbed areas. We, therefore, set aside the impugned Notification No F.16(1)/2021-LGE-KP

dated 20.01.2022, and direct the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan to reschedule the [second phase of KP LG] Elections after Ramadan, 2022, or as and when the weather is normalised in the aforementioned areas,” it announced.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022