Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday declined the plea of former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza to halt oath-taking ceremony of the candidates elected against reserved seats for local councils of Sindh.

However, the top court also issued notices to Sindh Government and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The top court also issued notice to Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf, the top law officer of the country, for legal assistance in the instant matter.

A two-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamli on Monday took up the petition filed by former Home Minister Sindh Zulfiqar Mirza, wherein he had challenged that Section 18-A of Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA) 2013 is ultra-vires of the Constitution.

The SLGA 2013 was enacted on August 26, 2013; however, the Act has been subjected to eight amendments in short span of 30 months.

Under Section 18-A, which was inserted in the said Act through amendment, independent candidates have been barred from participating in elections against reserved seats for women, minorities, labour/peasants and youth in various local councils (amounting to no less than 48% of the total council’s strength).

During the course of hearing, Salahuddin Ahmed, counsel for Zulfiqar Mirza said that through the amendment only political parties and candidates of political parties can participate in the process of filling reserved seats and the election system has been converted to a system of proportionate allocation of seats based on party-strength in the local councils which violates, inter alia Article 140-A of the constitution..

He submitted that due to the collective efforts of a few political parties, millions of people across the province, who rejected political parties in favor of independent candidates, have been left disenfranchised.

The petitioner submitted that majority of the said amendments were made to serve specific political agendas of the ruling party in Sindh and in complete disregard of the interest of the general public.

With such frequent amendments, the shape of the law itself has been distorted and great confusion has been caused in the electoral process leading to disenfranchisement thus the devolution of power to local government has been deliberately delayed, the petitioner contended.

He prayed the apex court to declare Section 18-A of the said Act ultra vires of Articles 2-A, 4, 9, 10-A, 17, 25 and 140-A of the Constitution, accordingly, void ab-initio besides declaring that any notification issued by ECP declaring any candidates as having been successfully returned to a reserved seat in any local council pursuant to section 18-A of SLGA 2013 as being unlawful, a nullity and void ab-initio.

The petitioner also prayed the court to direct the ECP to conduct elections on reserved seats in all local councils through secret ballot from among the general/elected members of such council in accordance with the procedure prescribed under section 18 of the SLGA 2013 read with Chapter V of the Sindh Local Council (Election) Rules 2015.

He also prayed to restrain Sindh government and ECP from holding elections of Chairman and Vice Chairman in various local councils mentioned in section 18-A of SLGA 2013 until such time as all the reserved seats are filled in the manner aforesaid.

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali however, rejected the plea with the ruling that by halting the said process, the whole local government system could be delayed.

The top court adjourned the hearing for a week.