Despite a strong backlash from certain political quarters led by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday stuck to its order on delimitation of electoral constituencies in the violence-hit financial hub of the country, Karachi.
The bench five-member bench led by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali passed an interim order on Tuesday, asking the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Sindh government to complete the delimitation process at the earliest.
The bench, also comprising Justices Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, was hearing the Karachi law and order implementation case.
During the hearing, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan informed the court that the task of delimitation of constituencies in Karachi had been taken up with the Sindh government.
He said the ECP would hold three meetings with officials of the Sindh government to make substantial progress in the delimitation process. Khan also assured the court that the work would be done in the shortest possible time after taking all stakeholders on board and the report would be submitted before the court soon. He conceded that neither Article 51(5) nor Section 7(2) of the Delimitation of Constituencies Act 1974 were hurdles in compliance of such observation.
The Sindh chief secretary also assured the court of cooperating with the ECP for winding up delimitation of constituencies in Karachi per the court’s orders.