SHC hears political parties petitions over Sindh LG Polls

KARACHI: The election commission submitted its report in Sindh High Court (SHC) over political parties petitions seeking deferral of local government elections, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Barrister Farogh Naseem sought a copy of the report of the election commission and said, ” we will promptly reply on it”.

“All political parties of the opposition and the government are part of the select committee,” he told the court. “The Sindh government has itself confessed that amendments are required in the law,” Naseem said.

“The Supreme Court in its verdict said that the Local Government shall be relevant to the Article 140-A,” he further argued.

“How the select committee is linked with the legislation,” Justice Junaid Ghaffar questioned. “The delimitation law should also be considered, the delimitation committee went beyond to its mandate,” the counsel said.

“Why you have taken a belated decision, why the minutes came so late,” the court questioned.

“Legal requirements were not fulfilled in delimitation process,” Naseem said. “A union council in Momin Abad have 40 to 50 thousand votes, while in our areas, the UCs have over 82,000 votes. Carving out union councils on different number of the population affects representation of different segments of society,” he argued.

“Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar had restrained elections in 2014, two days before the polling”, Farogh Naseem said.

“Now you have support of the government,” Justice Ghaffar said. ” Yes, the government is consenting to our stance, but it should be allowed to work,” Naseem replied.

The court adjourned further hearing on petitions of political parties about LG elections till tomorrow.

“Why the election commission wants to hold such elections, on which all parties have objections,” Senator Farogh Naseem, talking to media in the Sindh High Court premises said. “All political parties want to postpone the local government elections in Sindh, but the election commission insisting over it. “