Daily Times

In two separate decisions on Thursday, the Supreme Court delayed the National Assembly by-election for NA-75 in Daska, which was supposed to be held on April 10. The apex court also restored local bodies in Punjab, declaring Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2019, unconstitutional.

Hearing a petition filed by the PTI’s candidate from NA-75 Asjad Ali Malhi, in which he had challenged the ECP’s Feb 25 decision to hold a fresh by-election in NA-75, the bench said the court needs more time to decide the case. “At the moment, we are hearing Salman Akram Raja’s [the PML-N candidate’s lawyer} arguments. We have to hear [the arguments of] other parties to the case apart from Nosheen Ahmed [PML-N candidate],” said the court, and adjourned proceedings of the case for an unspecified period. “The decision of the ECP to hold re-polling stands. However, for the moment, we are postponing the decision to hold the polling on April 10,” said Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered re-polling in the constituency after firing incidents – involving workers of the PTI and the PML-N during polling – resulted in a couple of people getting killed and others injured.

During the proceedings on Thursday, Raja presented a complete map of Daska district before the court, to which Justice Umar Ata Bandial had an interesting remark. “You’ve prepared a lot of material in just a day’s time,” said the judge. In response, Raja pointed out there were 76 polling stations in Daska and that complaints of irregularities were reported in 34 of them. “The ECP identified these 34 polling stations and even 20 presiding officers went missing,” he stated.

“It is even said polling was delayed at 10 polling stations for quite some time,” said Justice Bandial. “The question is, who was behind such a move and why?” The judge wondered whether the irregularities took place because one candidate was strong and the other had to resort to such measures to win.

“Nosheen’s father has won from Daska five times,” argued Raja. “Her family has a lot of influence in the city. She was supposed to poll 46,000 votes while the PTI candidate was expected to poll 11,000 votes,” he added.

Raja said it was in the PTI candidate’s interest to mar the polls since its candidate did not stand a chance of winning the contest.

The judge told the PML-N lawyer it was his responsibility to prove why polling should be held throughout the constituency when irregularities were reported in 23 polling stations. “Half of Daska’s polling stations reported irregularities,” replied Raja. “Seventy-six polling stations do not amount to half of Daska’s polling stations,” responded the judge. “I apologise, 76 amount to one-third of the polling stations in the city,” Raja corrected himself. “There is a difference between half and one-third,” the judge said.

In response to a question from the judge, Raja said the presiding officers left the constituency in the usual manner, escorted by police. “However, their return was unusual; they all came together and were afraid,” said the PML-N candidate’s lawyer.

Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Thursday that the directives of the Supreme Court to postpone the by-election in NA 75 is victory of truth and defeat of politics of deceit and fraud. Addressing a press conference along with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate from NA-75 Daska Ali Asjad Malhi, she lamented that for past few weeks only one side of the story was being highlighted on the media but the Supreme Court of Pakistan listened to the other side.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court on Thursday restored the local governments in Punjab after the provincial government dissolved it before the expiry of their term in May 2019. The top court also declared the Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2019, unconstitutional.

Hearing the case, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that the local government representatives were elected for five years and their tenure cannot be shortened based on a single notification. He added that laws can be made under Article 140 but the same cannot abolish government institutions. The chief justice maintained that the government holds a certain stature, be it federal, provincial or local, adding that the law can only alter conditions or improve infrastructure of the government institutions.

The court asserted that the provincial government first announced holding re-elections in six months after the dissolution of local bodies. It added that a 21-month extension was then extended to the Council of Common Interests. It argued that the government is contradicting itself by wanting to take the power to the lower level and then abolishing the power itself. The CJP sought an explanation from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Insaf (PTI)-led Punjab government concerning the law under which the local bodies were abolished.

Replying to the SC bench, Punjab government’s counsel, Qasim Chauhan, said that the re-election for the local government bodies has been delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in the country. In response, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan said that the elections were announced six months after the local government departments were abolished, adding that the date for the proposed elections was extended for another 21 months and the decision to hold them is now subject to approval from the Council of Common Interests.

Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan further said that the federal, provincial, and local governments can be abolished for a limited period, but [by not holding local bodies elections for such a long time] people have been deprived of their representatives.

Replying to the counsel’s argument that the elections were delayed due to the pandemic, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan reminded him that the Gilgit-Baltistan elections were also held despite the pandemic.

In his remarks, the CJP said that repealing laws and reintroducing them overnight is something “unprecedented across the globe.” “How can you explain that people should be kept away from elected representatives? Laws can be made under Article 140 but institutions cannot be abolished. Who has given you the wrong suggestion of bringing about an act.”

The Supreme Court said that Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act violates Article 140A of the constitution and is unconstitutional. The chief justice added that the people elected the local body representatives for five years, therefore, they cannot be sent home on the basis of a notification.

The court accepted the pleas filed by PML-N leader Danial Aziz and citizen Asad Ali Khan and ordered the restoration of the local bodies of Punjab.