KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has reserved its order on the maintainability of two identical petitions filed by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seeking postponement of local government elections in Sindh.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh heard arguments from the petitioners’ lawyers on the maintainability of both the petitions.

They argued that the impugned notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold the first phase of local government elections in four divisions of Sindh on June 26 was a violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement declaring various provisions of the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA) 2013 ultra vires of the Constitution.

They argued that the LG elections could not be conducted until new local government law was enacted in the light of the apex court’s order and the LG elections under the SLGA 2013 was not only a futile exercise, but also wastage of financial resources.

The GDA through Dr Safdar Abbasi, Sardar Abdul Rahim and other leaders petitioned the SHC while the PTI leaders Haleem Adil Sheikh, Firdous Shamim Naqvi and others approached the SHC challenging the April 13 notification of the ECP announcing the schedule for conducting LG elections in the first phase in Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad and Mirpurkhas divisions of the province on June 26.

Citing the ECP, provincial election commissioner, secretaries of home, LG and law departments, Sindh Assembly secretary and others as respondents, the petitioners maintained that in its Feb 1 judgement, the apex court had emphasised on Article 140-A of the Constitution to set up LGs possessing meaningful authority and struck down Sections 74 and 75(1) of SLGA 2013.

The contended that both the sections provide excessive delegation of powers to the provincial government in matters relating to management and control of LG institutions and asserted that the SLGA 2013 was not in compliance with Article 140-A in its present form and sought a reformed law from the provincial government.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022