ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to continue with preparations for local government polls in Punjab on a non-party basis despite the Lahore High Court ruling against it.

A spokesman for the ECP said Friday that commission officials were of the view that, in light of the LHC's ruling to conduct local government elections on party basis, the responsibility to amend the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 (PLGA) fell upon the provincial government.

The ECP further believes that until and unless a new law is formulated or the existing law amended, preparations for polls should continue as planned based on the laws currently in place, he said.

On Thursday, a bench of the LHC headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial declared that holding local government elections in Punjab on non-party basis would be a violation of the constitution. The bench set aside Section 18 of the PLGA 2013.

The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q), Lawyers Foundation for Justice, Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) and others had filed petitions challenging the non-party elections and the Punjab government’s jurisdiction to carry out delimitation of LG constituencies.

The court, in its ruling, observed that local governments derived their authority from Articles 7, 32 and 140-A of the Constitution and while these provisions allowed provincial legislation on the local government system, these imposed checks on the power of the provincial legislature to guide such legislation.

“The constitution commands to devolve political responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of local governments,” the court said. “Political responsibility and authority is exercised by the elected representatives of local governments by applying their political values and principles.”

The court said Section 18 of the PLGA was inconsistent with the fundamental right of citizens under Article 17(2) of the Constitution and political parties to contest elections to the public posts in the local governments. Therefore, it said, the elections on non-party basis were inconsistent with the command in Article 140A (1) of the Constitution.

The Punjab government had opposed the petitions on the ground that Article 17(2) of the Constitution did not apply to the establishment of local governments.