ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday filed a contempt petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the electoral body failed to hold Local Government polls in the federal capital despite the Islamabad High Court’s verdict.
On the other hand, the ECP and the federal government filed intra-court appeals against the IHC’s order to hold local body elections in Islamabad.
A single bench of Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir a day ago (December 30) late in the afternoon announced its reserved order, directing the Commission to conduct LB elections in the federal capital on December 31 as per its already announced schedule. The federal government was directed to provide all the assistance to the ECP for conducting the polls as mandated by the Constitution.
PTI leader Ali Nawaz Awan filed the petition, praying the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the ECP over its failure to conduct the local government polls. He submitted that voters had gathered outside polling stations in the federal capital but the election staff was missing. He further prayed that the respondents [ECP] should be convicted and sentenced in an exemplary manner, in the interest to maintain the sanctity of judgments and honourable courts.
The ECP, in the ICA, made it clear that due to the lack of logistical support, election staff, and other arrangements, it was not possible to hold the polls on Saturday.
However, the IHC Registrar’s Office objected to the commission’s appeal as some documents were reportedly missing from the appeal.
The election commission, on the other hand, listed a number of reasons in its petition why the polls were not possible today (Saturday).
IHC directs ECP to hold Islamabad LG polls today
The ballot papers are lying in the printing press of the Pakistan Press and are required to be transported to the office of 14 returning officers (RO) at different locations.
The activities scheduled to be conducted from December 23 to December 31 could not be completed.
The ROs are required to bulk-brake 5.2 million ballot papers of six different categories and prepare packing invoices for each polling station mentioning the serial number of ballot papers, the code number of official mark stamps and other material.
The ROs are required to establish counters for the distribution of election material under proper security and a day is utilised for this. More than thousands of vehicles are required to be arranged for the transportation of polling personnel and material.
A security plan is required to be synchronised with the transportation plan. More than 14,000 polling personnel are appointed to perform duties at 1,039 polling stations and 3,088 polling booths. After the postponement, the entire staff was to be recognised.
Being a metropolitan city, the employees belong to all provinces. Due to the postponement and winter vacations, they returned to their native towns and require a minimum of 24 hours to return to their polling stations.
The main reason for the deployment of the same staff is that they have been properly trained by the commission and it would be a risk to deploy untrained staff.
The local administration was required to install CCTV at highly-sensitive polling stations, which was to be done one day before the elections. However, due to the postponement, all went into abeyance.
The additional attorney general on behalf of the federal government filed the appeal. According to that IHC’s verdict was “tenable on legal as well as a factual aspect” because it was not passed on “ground realities”. It said; “The Court has not appreciated that holding the election of local government on the scheduled date, ie, Dec 31 was practically not possible as the judgement was announced at about 5pm on Dec 30 and elections were ordered to be held the next day.”
The petition stated that the judge, while passing the orders, had overlooked a number of factual and legal objections raised on behalf of the appellants. It pointed out that the order had failed to appreciate that the ECP was a constitutional body and “should not be treated like an executive body by issuing directions”. “The impugned order dated Dec 30 is a result of misinterpretation, misconstruction and misapplication of laws and facts.”
In the petition, the federal government also assured the court that along with the ECP, it will hold the polls in the “due period of time” and requested that yesterday’s order should be “set aside”.
The IHC on Friday (December 30) had set aside the December 19 notification of the Interior Ministry regarding the increase in the number of union councils. It had also nullified the 27th December notification of the ECP regarding the postponement of the elections.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022