KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has asked the electoral watchdog to hold local government elections in Karachi and Hyde­rabad divisions within two months and notify a polling date “preferably within 15 days”.

However, in a detailed ord­er issued by a two-judge bench on Friday, the court said it wouldn’t go so far as to dictate the polling date or direct the way elections sho­uld be conducted or policed.

The bench, comprising SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh and Justice Yusuf Ali Sayeed, also directed the Sindh government to help the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) conduct polls, and asked the Sindh’s chief secretary and inspector general of police to take the required “preparatory or organisational steps” in advance.

Local government elections in the two divisions were originally scheduled for July 24, but have been put off thrice since then, primarily because of the Sindh government’s request that it didn’t have the required police officials, who were busy with flood relief operations.

The polls were first put off to Aug 28, then to Oct 23, and then indefinitely, before the Sindh government on Nov 10 said it had postponed the polls on its own for 90 days.

The SHC issued the deta­iled order on petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Jamaat-i-Islami that they filed after the polls had been postponed for the second time ahead of the Aug 28 schedule.

The judgement, authored by Justice Sayeed, said the election in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions had now been repeatedly postponed for around four months on the pretext of flood and relief operations and a definite future date was still not in sight.

The bench observed that there had been considerable time for an appropriate solution to have been found and the matter could not indefinitely be kept in abeyance by the provincial administration continuing to withhold the assistance it was bound to provide to the ECP on the same pretext.As for Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s application on polls, the bench said that a petition filed by the party seeking postponement of the polls had been dismissed by the SHC in June and thereafter the Supreme Court was approached, which then disposed of such applications in August and directed the ECP to proceed with the second phase of LG election as scheduled.

The judgement said, “We would not go so far as to dictate the date of the election or direct the manner in which the same ought to be conducted or policed, but would note that the ECP may notify the polling date, preferably within a period of 15 days from the date of this order, specifying a fresh polling date, or indeed date(s) as the case may be in the event that it is deemed expedient to stagger the process, but so as to preferably conclude the overall exercise of the election in any event within a total period of 60 days”.

The court directed the Sindh government to ensure that requisite assistance is rendered to the ECP in the matter.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022