KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday declined to issue an interim restraining order against the local government election in Sindh, for which polling for the first phase is scheduled to be held on June 26, on a petition of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan challenging the polls’ schedule.

However, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Sindh chief secretary, LG secretary and other respondents as well as the federal and provincial law officers for Aug 8.

MQM leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel along with other party leaders approached the SHC regarding the notifications issued by the ECP in April and May announcing the schedule of the LG elections in Sindh.

The lawyer for petitioners, Tariq Mansoor, argued that the impugned notifications were issued without lawful authority and in violation of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 as at the time of issuance of such notifications the quorum composition of the ECP was not completed.

SHC issues notices to ECP, chief secretary

He further submitted that the full composition of the ECP was the chief election commissioner and four members from each province, but there were the CEC and only two members, when the schedule was announced.

Therefore, he argued that the impugned notifications were issued by the ECP without following the mandatory constitutional authority as required under Articles 218 and 219 of the constitution and also in violation of Section 34 of the SLGA, 2013.

The counsel further submitted that in the impugned two notifications, issued on April 13 and April 29, the ECP had announced schedule for LG polls in two phases and in the first phase LG polls to be held on June 26 in four divisions of Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad while in the second phase, elections would be held in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions on July 24 while a revised notification/corrigendum was issued on May 11.

The lawyer requested the bench to suspend the impugned notifications through interim order till next hearing.

The bench said that the petitioners had approached the SHC during summer vacation instead of timely petitioning the court as the impugned notification had been issued in April and May.

However, the bench further said that it was not issuing any restraining order, but issuing notices to the relevant authorities.

The petitioners asked the court to declare the impugned notifications unlawful and complete compliance with the Supreme Court judgement, handed down in February on a petition of the MQM, and emphasised on Article 140-A of the Constitution to set up LG possessing meaningful authority.

In February, the MQM-P had also petitioned the SHC against delimitation process for LG elections in the province and contended that the delimitation and town demarcation were made on ethnic linguistic basis and with mala fide considerations and now it is fixed on June 20.

It may be recalled that on May 9, another division bench had dismissed two identical petitions of the Grand Democratic Alliance and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seeking postponement of local government elections in Sindh.

The petitioners had also impugned the notification issued by the ECP to hold the first phase of LG elections in four divisions and argued that the same was issued without lawful authority and in violation of Supreme Court judgement which declared various provisions of Sindh Local Government Act, 2013 ultra vires of the Constitution.

Last week, the PTI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against LG elections in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2022