The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday declared the amendments in the Sindh Local Government Act-2013 (SLGA-2013) unconstitutional and illegal.
The court also directed to hold the local bodies (LB) elections on the basis of 2001 delimitations after declaring the Sindh government’s notification relating to the delimitations in Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Hyderabad and Sukkur divisions null and void.
It is further said in the court order that if the Sindh government considers the delimitations indispensable, then the LB elections date should be extended for which the Sindh government should approach the Supreme Court (SC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
SHC Division bench comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Farooq Ali Shah announced this short order, which was earlier reserved on completion of the hearings.
Ten political parties including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) had filed petitions challenging the LB delimitations and amendments in SLGA-2013 and prayed for declaring them void as it contradicted Article 104-A of the constitution.
The court in its short order declared the amendments in SLGA-2013 unconstitutional and illegal.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Quaid Altaf Hussain hailed the decision and said he was extremely grateful to the honorable judges of the Supreme Court and high court for this historical verdict.
He also felicitated the people of Pakistan, especially the citizens of Sindh and paid rich tributes to all the lawyers including Barrister Farogh Naseem for successful pleading of this case.
