The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday asked the government to share the minutes and summary of the January 19 Cabinet meeting on increasing the number of Union Councils (UCs) in Islamabad.
A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Amir Farooq of the Islamabad High Court heard intra-court appeals against the court’s decision to hold local government (LG) elections in the federal capital on December 31.
During the hearing, the High Court asked the federal government to provide a solid reason for increasing the number of UCs from 101 to 125 for the local elections in the next hearing.
The court warned that if the government failed to provide a satisfactory reason, it would order elections in 101 UCs.
The Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was ready to conduct the elections in 101 USCs and still is.
The court inquired that the election has not taken place, what will happen now?
On this, a lawyer representing a citizen – who approached the court regarding the correction of voter list – said that it is difficult to implement the court order in such a short time.
He said that the single bench did not listen to us, otherwise the order would not have been issued.
The court then asked how this affects those who have challenged the voter list.
Isn’t it the job of the District Election Commissioner to see the voter lists? asked the court.
On this, the ECP Director General of Law said that it is the authority of the District Election Commissioner to check the voter list.
The court said that three days have been given for correctness of voter lists. The IHC chief justice said that the concerns of the voters would be justified if the single bench judgment was upheld.
“You have to release the schedule even if the election is held in 101 union councils. If the number of UCs is reduced to 125 as per the federal government, then the problem of voters will not remain,” he added.
Justice Farooq further said that this whole process will be repeated once again after increasing the number of UCIs.
According to the single bench, he said, the federal government could not provide any solid reason for increasing the UC.
The Chief Justice of the IHC asked the Director General Law how much time the Election Commission will take to conduct the polling.
On this, ECP DG Law said that if elections are to be held in 101 UCs, they need 10 days.
The court adjourned the hearing of the case till January 19.
President Alvi returned the bill.
On January 1, President Dr. Arif Alvi withdrew the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2022, which proposed increasing the number of unsigned UCs, as it was “anathema to democracy”.
The President returned the Bill under clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution with the observation that it would “further delay the local elections”.
The president also said that it has also been said that the local body elections in Islamabad were delayed due to the “disgraceful actions” of the federal government.
Argument over the bill.
Initially, the ECP had scheduled the local government elections in Islamabad on July 31 last year.
However, the IHC directed the electoral body to postpone the polls and redelimit the constituencies.
After the process was completed, the ECP announced that it will hold the elections on the last day of 2022 i.e. December 31.
But on December 22, 2022, the National Assembly passed the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022 amid protests by opposition members and voices over lack of quorum in the House.
In the bill, the number of UCIs in the federal capital was increased from 101 to 125.
The Senate also passed the bill the next day and it was pending with the President for assent, which has now been rejected.
The ECP had rejected the bill and announced that it would hold elections as per schedule.
Interestingly, the bill was challenged by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Islamabad High Court before the President’s assent.
The IHC, while hearing these petitions, put the ball in the ECP’s court and asked him to hear all the parties before taking a decision. He then announced the postponement of the elections.
In response, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) once again approached the IHC to quash the ECP’s decision.
The IHC, hearing these pleas, on December 30 quashed the ECP’s order and directed the body to conduct the local government elections on December 31 as scheduled.
As a result, citizens who went out to vote for the local body elections in Islamabad protested after finding all the designated ECP polling stations closed and the staff missing.
Following this development, the federal government and the ECP filed a petition against the IHC. While PTI has approached the IHC for contempt of court proceedings against the Center and the ECP.
