ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday notified to cease the administrative units’ boundaries in six of the seven divisional headquarters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the launch of constituencies’ delimitation exercise in these areas, a mandatory constitutional requirement for Local Government elections.

In a notification, the Commission said that the boundaries of existing administrative units in the six divisional headquarters “shall stand ceased forthwith and no change in the boundaries of aforementioned administrative units shall be made till the culmination of delimitation process in above referred districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.”

The KP’s six out of seven divisional headquarters are: district Abbottabad, the headquarter of Hazara Division, district Bannu, the headquarter of Bannu Division, district Dera Ismail Khan, the headquarter of Dera Ismail Khan Division, district Kohat, the headquarter of Kohat Division, district Swat, the headquarters of Malakand Division and district Mardan, the headquarter of Mardan Division.

However, the notification did not include district Peshawar, the headquarters of Peshawar Division and the provincial capital of KP. Earlier on Monday, the ECP kicked off constituencies’ delimitation drive for LG elections in the six divisional headquarters following the fulfilment of related requirements by KP government.

On the first of this month, Secretary Local Government KP Shakeel Ahmed Mian assured the ECP in a meeting that provincial government would notify the number of city local councils in the seven divisional headquarters of KP “in a day or two.”

The secretary LG KP also informed the meeting that a sub-committee had been formed under the supervision of Provincial Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan that would finalise its recommendations and put them before the provincial cabinet before the coming December 10 regarding holding LG elections in the province. He also assured the ECP that the provincial government would notify LG electoral rules soon.

The ECP officials told the secretary LG KP that the commission issued several reminders to the provincial government but it did not fulfil its obligations regarding LG elections.

The ECP then decided to write to the provincial government to fulfil its pending commitments regarding LG elections and make arrangements to make possible the conduct of LG polls in the light of Supreme Court’s order dated November 18, 2020.

The apex court on November 18, this year, warned the KP government of initiating contempt of court proceedings if it failed to hold LG elections in accordance with the Constitution.

During the hearing of a related case, the SC expressed surprise as to why the LG elections had not been held even after the passage of 14 months, and reiterated that it would not allow any violation of the rights of the people of KP.

On September 2, this year, the ECP said that the governments of Punjab and KP had not yet met certain legal requirements in line with holding local government elections and stressed upon the federal and provincial governments to remove constitutional and legal hitches for the timely conduct of LG polls.

The ECP said the KP government did not notify certain provisions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2019, and Khyber Paktunkhwa Local Council Rules, 2019, which is a hurdle in making preparations for LG elections in the province.

The KP government also did not provide the relevant data in the seven divisional headquarters related to the city local councils’ limits, the number of village and neighbourhood councils and category-wise number of seats due to which delimitation exercise could not be started in these districts, ECP said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020