Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed identical petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and others against delimitation of union councils of the federal capital for upcoming LB polls. An IHC division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq dismissed the petitions after hearing the counsels.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in its written reply submitted to IHC had expressed apprehension that after announcement of schedule any change at this stage would delay holding of local government elections in the federal capital. The ECP in its reply submitted in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on identical petitions regarding local government elections in the federal capital filed by PTI and others stated that delaying the activities at this stage or bringing any changes in the delimitation of constituencies of already scheduled election for local government would frustrate the election schedule.
The petitioners alleged before the IHC that Islamabad Local Government Act, 2015 was marred with lacunas. The ECP reply stated that the uniformity in population as well as geographical compactness of the areas has taken into consideration while undertaking the process of delimitation. ECP claimed that the prime objective to hold the local government election is to provide the basic facility at the door steps to all inhabitants.
The reply stated that the writ petition filed by PTI did not point out any reason for setting aside the delimitation of the union councils therefore it is liable to be dismissed, adding that the ECP have fully complied with the provisions envisaged in section 6 and 7 of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government Act 2015, as well as the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and as such the petitioners have no locus standi to file the writ petition.
The ECP further stated that the delimitation authority carried out the delimitation exercise of the union councils as per delimitation principles laid down in the ICT Act. However, the delimitation authority, another respondent has rightly dismissed the objections filed by the PTI, keeping in view the principles of delimitation.
Comments
Comments are closed.