SHC seeks govt reply on MQM-P petition

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to official respondents on a petition moved by MQM-P challenging an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notification regarding delimitation for local government constituencies in Sindh.

A two-member SHC bench directed the Sindh chief secretary, the provincial election commission, the local government secretary, and the Council of Common Interests (CCI) secretary to furnish their comments on the petition by next hearing on August 26.

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MQM-P leaders Amir Khan, Kunwar Naveed Jamil and Wasim Akhtar through their counsel challenged the ECP notification.

They stated that delimitation exclusively falls within the ambit of the ECP, but additional deputy commissioners have been included in committees for delimitation for local government constituencies.

They contended that such a notification is illegal and added the ECP was required to carry out the delimitation after every census results are published officially, but the final result of the 2017 census has not been published.