The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued a stay order on printing of ballot papers for 11 constituencies of Karachi.
Earlier, the SHC had reserved its judgment till Monday on a petition filed by MQM against delimitation of three national, and eight provincial assembly constituencies in Karachi.
MQM had challenged the election commission’s March 22 notification regarding delimitation of 11 Karachi constituencies, terming it a conspiracy against their mandate.
In his concluding arguments, Deputy Attorney General Ashiq Raza submitted that constituencies were redrawn following the Supreme Court order in the Karachi violence case. He contended the election commission was empowered under Section 10-A of the Delimitation of Constituencies Act to redraw constituencies.
The commission also justified the delimitation, mentioning that the apex court had observed that boundaries of administrative units such as police stations and revenue estates ought to be altered to avoid political polarisation and to curb ethnic strife and turf wars.
The court was further told that the schedule for general elections was issued on March 22 and the process had started after the issuance of the schedule and was not linked to completion of assembly term. “The petition is not maintainable and devoid of any merit and may kindly be dismissed,” the election commission submitted.
MQM counsel Farogh Naseem submitted that delimitation was not made according to the last recognised census of 1998 but conducted on the basis of an incomplete census. The constituencies were redrawn without a fresh census, which could not be done under the law, he argued.
He further contended that after the election process had started, constituencies could not be redrawn neither could electoral rolls be changed as it would affect the entire election process.
The SHC issued a stay order till April 21 and sought an answer from the election commission on April 22.