Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notice to Election Commission of Pakistan on petition challenging the delimitations of national and provincial constituencies, which have not been done in accordance with population figures of national consensus. The court also directed the ECP to submit its reply on Thursday (today). A division bench of SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar admitted the petition of Murid Ali Shah, who moved the court against delimitations of constituencies, which he contended were done on population figures, contrary to national census.
The petitioner submitted in the court that the national census puts the population of the country at 200.77 million whereas the notification issued by ECP for delimitations of national and provincial constituencies on 5th January this showed the population of country at 200.66 million.
The petitioner contended that the contradictions in the population figure in national census and the population shown by ECP clearly reflect that delimitations has been made on wrong figures of population.
The Petitioner prayed that the court should issue notice to ECP to explain about this discrepancy. The petition also mentioned that population figures of all the provinces in the notification of ECP have been mentioned wrongly as these are not in consonance with national census.
It stated this discrepancy raised serious questions over delimitations, which according to the petitioner is unjust.
The division bench after preliminary hearing of petition issued notice to the ECP to submit its reply with the court on Thursday (today).
A similar petition against delimitations was filed in SHC few days back when the court was moved about wrong delimitations in Shikarpur, Jamshoro and Khairpur districts of Sindh. Mureed Ali Shah was also among the petitioners against delimitations, which SHC fixed to hear on Thursday (today).
Meanwhile, the SHC on Wednesday summoned Inspector General Police (IGP) Sindh A D Khawja to appear in the court on May 30, 2018 for not appointing a focal person in missing persons case despite the orders of the court.
The SHC resumed the hearing on different petitions regarding more than fifty persons, who went missing or their whereabouts are not known. About the orders of court, the lawyer of missing persons told the court that a focal person of DIG level has not been appointed so far.
The court took exception to non-implementation of its order and directed IG Sindh A D Khawja to appear in the next hearing on May 30 to explain about non-compliance with the court orders. The court also issued notices to police, rangers and other law enforcing agencies in missing person case.