The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued directives to Federal Government to make necessary enactments to empower the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to carry out delimitation of local government constituencies. A three-member bench of Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani with Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed announced a detailed judgement in response to identical pleas of Sindh Government in the delimitation case.
In its 65-page judgment, authored by Chief Justice Jillani, the court also directed the Sindh to make necessary amendments in the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. The court ruled that the judgment would not affect the Local Bodies (LBs) polls in Balochistan held on December 7, 2013 on the basis of old delimitation of the constituencies.
"Before we part with the judgement, we may like to observe that the elections to LB polls in Balochistan were held on December 7, 2013 on the basis of delimitation of constituencies, carried out by the Provincial Government in terms of the Balochistan Local Government Act, 2010- this judgement is prospective and shall not, in any manner, affect the validity of the said elections," said in the detailed verdict. Earlier, on March 20, 2014, the court in its short order had said that the powers to hold elections of the Local Government stand vested in the Election Commission of Pakistan in terms of Article 140A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The court had upheld para 60(e) of the judgement of the Sindh High Court of December 26, 2013. The court in its short order had further ruled that since the delimitation of constituencies of the LBs is part of the process of organising and holding elections honestly, justly and fairly which is the Constitutional mandate of the Election Commission of Pakistan, the power to carry out such delimitation should vest with the Election Commission of Pakistan.
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