ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has refused to sign a government bill aimed at increasing the number of union councils (UCs) in the federal capital and returned the legislation unsigned in terms of clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution.

The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022, a government bill which was recently passed by the Parliament was sent to the president that was returned.

“The Bill was returned by observing that it would further delay the Local Government elections…Actions of the Federal Government taken in hurry resulted in delaying election process, twice, which was anathema to democracy,” the President said in a statement on Sunday.

It was further stated that elections could not be held in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) due to “malafide actions” of the federal government.

He stated that after completion of delimitation of 50 Union Councils, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced elections of Local Government in ICT on 31st July 2022.

With undue haste, NA passes bill for raising number of UC seats

Despite the announcement of the polling date, the President added that the federal government increased the number of union councils from 50 to 101, resulting in postponement of elections.

After the demarcation of 101 union councils, he added that the ECP decided to hold elections in ICT on 31st December 2022.

“Section 2 of the current Bill provides for 125 Union Councils in the ICT. Therefore, elections scheduled for 31st December 2022 have been again postponed,” he added.

“As per Section 3 of the current Bill, the mode of elections of Mayor and Deputy Mayor has been changed after announcement of schedule of elections,” the President added.

The move comes following the ECP missed the election schedule of December 31, 2022 in the federal capital despite the Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision, which the election body later challenged through intra court appeal.

The opposition, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) are in favour of holding of the local government elections under the previous electoral arrangements, while the federal government is of the view that hence the population of the federal capital has increased, therefore, the polls should be held once delimitation exercise is done under the new law by increasing the number of union councils.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023