ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz will decide whether Islamabad’s local government (LG) elections would be held under the old law or the new legislation.

A written order of the division bench of the intra-court appeals of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the federal government raised the question of holding the elections after a new legislation sought an increase in the number of UCs. The bill passed by parliament is yet to be signed by President Arif Alvi.

It may be mentioned that the LG elections in 101 UCs were due on Dec 31; however, the government increased the number of UCs from 101 to 125 on Dec 19. A day after, the ECP rejected the move. But following a decision of the IHC of Dec 23, it heard the stance of the federal government and postponed the elections.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) challenged the decision in the IHC. The high court’s Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir on Dec 30 set aside the notification which increased the number of UCs and directed the ECP to hold LG elections on Dec 31.

ECP says single-member bench arbitrarily set aside notification for increase in union councils

The ECP could not implement the IHC’s order for being “impractical” and went to the court along with the Election Commission. A division bench on Jan 2 heard the appeals of the ECP and government and issued notices to the respondents, including the PTI and JI.

In the written order, the IHC noted that the Election Commission’s lawyer had argued that a fresh date for polling could be made only after consultation but that would solely be on the basis of 101 union councils – the old law – and meanwhile if the number of councils is increased to 125 through legislation that would create anomaly and the needful shall have to be done for delimitation and completion of the process.

According to the division bench order, “The contentions raised by the learned counsel for the appellant require consideration. Let [a] notice be issued to the respondents for Jan 09, 2023.”

The court also noted that during an earlier round of litigation the IHC CJ, while deciding writ petitions, had remitted the matter to the Election Commission to render decision afresh on two issues – increase in the number of UCs and correction of voters lists. A petition in the high court had stated that as many as 10,000 voters have erroneously registered in other than their own UCs.

ECP’s counsel Mian Abdul Rauf argued that the issue of the UCs’ increase as per the decision of the IHC CJ was taken up on Dec 27 and the matter was decided the same day on the basis that the legislation for an increase in the number of UCs was before parliament.

It was contended that the issue regarding the change in the voters’ list was taken up on Dec 28 and the matter was referred to the competent authority for decision since the elections schedule had been set aside/postponed.

The court was told that Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir did not take into account the decision rendered by the IHC CJ and the interpretation handed down in those cases with respect to the increase in the number of UCs from 101 to 125 and arbitrarily set aside the notification.

As per the contention of the counsel of the ECP and the federal government reproduced in the written judgement, the single-member bench issued direction to the commission despite the fact that the watchdog is an autonomous and constitutional body and its independence is to be respected in terms of Supreme Court’s judgement in the case titled Sheikh Rashid Ahmed v. Government of Punjab and others.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023