ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday informed the Islamabad High Court that the much-delayed local government elections in the federal capital would be held on Sept 29 this year whereas the delimitation of union councils and wards was going to be completed on July 23, 2024.

The election watchdog shared the poll date with the high court during the hearing of identical petitions by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani against the ‘inordinate’ hike in the property tax that was also extended to private housing societies in the capital.

The petitions were filed by the Residents Welfare Association F-15/G-15 and the Islamabad City Council. The petitioners challenged a notification of a threefold increase in the property tax in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

At the last hearing on June 4, Justice Kayani sought a date for conducting local government (LG) elections in the federal capital and also issued a stay order against the collection of property tax on revised rates.

ECP blames federal govt for delay; says delimitation to be completed by July 23

As the IHC judge resumed the hearing on Wednesday, he inquired about the date of local bodies elections. The ECP submitted a report before the court regarding the polls in which it shared the details about the union councils’ delimitations and the poll date.

In its report, the ECP said the local government polls in Islamabad could not be held due to frequent changes in the number of union councils and the non-provision of notification of reserved seats of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad by the federal government.

In compliance with the March 2, 2023 order of the IHC which said polls should be held on 125 UCs within 120 days, the ECP said it completed the delimitation process of 125 UCs by June 9, 2023.

On June 22, the ECP convened a meeting with the federal government representatives and informed the commission was ready for polls and that it required the notification of reserved seats.

Despite repeated reminders, the government did not provide the required documents, it said, adding that after the 7th Digital Population Census 2023, the ECP carried out the delimitations afresh under Section 17(2) of the Elections Act.

On June 27, the ECP met the federal government officials again to demand the documents but so far the commission did not get them from the government, the response said, citing the federal government representatives as saying: “A summary of ‘Draft Islamabad Capital Local Government (Amendment) Act 2023’ has been approved by CCLC in its meeting held on June 5, 2024 and ratified by the cabinet in its meeting held on June 11, 2024. However, minutes of the said meeting are still awaited to proceed further”.

“The commission in the above-mentioned meeting directed the secretary of the Ministry of Interior to provide the notification regarding the number of reserved seats of the Metropolitan Corporation, Islamabad and amendment in Section 17 of the ICT Local Government Act, 2015, within one week, failing which the ECP will be constrained to fix the matter of non-conduct of local government elections, ICT, in regular on day to day basis,” the response said, adding that the government assured that they would provide the documents within one week.

Property tax

During the hearing, Justice Kayani observed that the property tax collected from a union council must be utilised in that particular area. He inquired utilisation of the tax collected from the private housing societies and what sort of services the civic agency provided to the residents of the societies.

The CDA counsel replied that the civic agency collected waste from the selected sites of the private societies besides other services. Out of Rs50bn, a modest sum of Rs3bn is collected through the property tax.

Earlier, the counsel for the petitioners, Barrister Umar Ijaz Gilani, argued that the right to decide the rate of taxation was reserved for elected representatives of the people.

The principle of “no taxation without representation” is adhered to in democracies all over the world. The role of the administrator is confined to day-to-day decisions. Therefore, the notification regarding an increase in the property tax is liable to be set aside.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2024