Which population explosion compelled to increase UCs for capital LG elections, asks IHC
Pakistan
Which population explosion compelled to increase UCs for capital LG elections, asks IHC
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday while expressing anger on Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over not conducting local government (LG) elections in Islamabad as per the court s orders inquired which population explosion compelled the government to instruct the ECP to increase union councils (UCs) in the city.
A two-member bench comprising IHC chief justice (CJ) Amir Farooq and Justice Saman Rifat Imtiaz heard the intra-court appeals involving the ECP, and the federation. The court rejected the Additional Attorney General (AAG) Munawar Iqbal’s request to adjourn the hearing saying whether he should adjourn the hearing till his retirement in 2031, and ordered the lawyer representing the ECP Mian Abdul Rauf to present his arguments.
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The ECP’s lawyer argued that the LG elections could not be conducted at the earliest because there was too less time to do so as the bill was first passed by the parliament, then sent to the president for assent, and the process to elect mayor and deputy mayor was also changed. “Despite all this, the ECP wrote to the government for providing logistic support which the government rejected by stating that it was not possible to do arrangements in such a short time, therefore, elections could only be held in seven to ten days”, he added.
The CJ remarked that until the bill was enacted, it would be called a bill and not a law. “How reliable is the bill that is not turned into law?”, he added. Should the court, he added, wait for legislation in the parliament? The court further inquired that if the ECP was serious in conducting elections, why had it filed an intra-court appeal in the court?
The court adjourned the hearing till Feb 1.
