Court refuses to admit ECP’s schedule of concluding polls by March 26, 2016, says commission has already wasted a lot of time
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold local bodies elections in Punjab and Sindh by September this year.
ECP Secretary Sher Afgan submitted a schedule of holding LG polls before the SC in which it was suggested that the polls would be held in three stages — with the third stage ending on March 26, 2016. However, the SC rejected the proposed schedule and asked the ECP to hold the polling four months before its given schedule, as a lot of time has already been wasted by the Commission. After extensive debate in the court, ECP agreed to revise its proposed schedule and hold the polls as per the directives of the apex court.
Meanwhile, Attorney General of Pakistan Salman Butt submitted before the court that local government elections in all the cantonments of the country will be held on May 16 this year. LG polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be held on June 7, 2015, and ECP has notified the court in this regard. Hearing of the case was then adjourned till Thursday.
Earlier, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the schedule for local federal, provincial and cantonment board elections from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and announced the deadline of 8pm Wednesday.
The three-member bench which was headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja expressed displeasure over the two-year delay and said discussions regarding local bodies elections are limited to “management aspects”, adding that a schedule for the elections must be submitted by Wednesday night.
The governments are dragging their feet on the issue of holding the much-needed local government elections in Punjab, Sindh and cantonment areas, the Supreme Court said last week.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk took up a matter relating to implementation of its March 20 judgment last year, which had vested ECP with the authority of carrying out delimitation of the constituencies and then holding the elections in Sindh and Punjab. The verdict had also declared the absence of the local government system for over nine years as against the Constitution and the law.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday came close to issuing a contempt notice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after it rejected a government plea stating that an ordinance to hold local government elections in all 43 cantonment boards of the country was ready.
“This is enough for us to issue (contempt) notice as our orders prima facie appear to not have been implemented,” retorted Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja.