ISLAMABAD: With the public mood heavily against indefinite deferment of local government elections, the Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed Jan 27 for hearing of appeals against the Sindh High Court’s order of setting aside the delimitation of wards in the province.

Although the grant of leave to appeal against SHC’s Dec 12 ruling may not affect the electioneering process since 11,000 nomination papers have already been filed by the intending candidates and scrutinised, the holding of elections on Jan 18 appears unlikely because the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has, for the third time, proposed new dates of Feb 23 for Sindh and March 13 for Punjab.

Initially, elections were to be held on Nov 27 in Sindh and Dec 7 in Punjab. The dates were extended with the permission of the apex court till Jan 18 in Sindh and Jan 30 in Punjab.

Balochistan conducted the elections on Dec 7 and the date for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not yet been decided.

Sindh Advocate General Khalid Javed Khan requested a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, that the election process should be continued and polls should not be postponed for an indefinite period.

He also sought suspension of the SHC verdict and said that otherwise the ECP would not be in a position to hold the elections.

The court had taken up appeals of the Sindh government, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Sindh United Front and the PML-F.

But it was the request of Senator Dr Farogh Naseem, representing the MQM, which apparently persuaded it to desist from granting interim relief, on which the court appeared to have made up its mind.

The counsel said that suspension of the high court order at this stage would create complications in the wake of prevailing confusion about the number of constituencies and eventually compromise the holding of the elections in a transparent manner.

Moreover, the Lahore High Court had also set aside the delimitation of the wards in Punjab on Dec 31 and the detailed reasoning would be issued on Monday, the senator said.

In the interest of justice, the case should be fixed as early as possible and decided after hearing all the sides, he said.

Advocate Akram Sheikh, representing the ECP, argued that the holding of the elections would not be possible on the fixed dates because of various difficulties.

ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said that although the commission had procured the required papers, the Printing Corporation of Pakistan needed three weeks to print ballot papers for Sindh and another week to distribute them.

The PCP and the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation have to print 30 million ballot papers for Sindh and 300 million for Punjab.

The chief justice said the government had failed to do its homework for holding the local government elections, which had prompted the Supreme Court to intervene, but it expected that the MQM, having the largest stakes in the elections, would adopt a responsible attitude in a way that the elections would not be deferred for an indefinite period and would be held in a transparent manner, inspiring confidence among the people.

The court will take up on Thursday the matter of holding the elections in Islamabad and the cantonment boards. Attorney General Shah Khawar has been asked to appear in this regard.

The issue of the elections in Punjab will be taken up on Monday.