The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday submitted its reply against the identical petitions regarding local government elections in federal capital filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and others in Islamabad High Court (IHC). A division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq took up the case, in which the petitioner told the IHC that Islamabad Local Government Act, 2015 was passed without completing due constitutional process.
The ECP stated that delaying the activities at this stage or bringing any changes in the delimitation of constituencies of already scheduled election for local government of ICT Islamabad would frustrate the activities of the election schedule. It stated that the uniformity in population as well as geographical compactness of the areas has taken into view while undertaking the process of delimitation.
The ECP claimed that the prime objective to hold the local government election in the Capital is to provide the basic facility to its residents at the door step, adding the petition filed by the PTI did not disclose any cause, hence liable to be dismissed. It said that the respondents 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 and the petitioner has no locus standi to file the writ petition. The ECP stated that the delimitation authority carried out the delimitation exercise of the Union Councils as per delimitation principles laid down in the ICT. Moreover, it has rightly dismissed the objections filed by the petitioner, keeping in view the principles of delimitation.