Local body elections, a constitutional requirement; Justice Qazi Faez Isa

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Thursday said that local body elections were a constitutional requirement.

He expressed these views while hearing a case, along with Justice Maqbool Baqar, regarding holding of local government elections in the country.

During the course of proceeding, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) submitted dates for local government elections in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Cantonment Boards.

The election commission in its reply said that the local government elections in Punjab will be held in three phases, while the first phase of the local council polls will be held on June 20, in the second phase on July 16 and in the third phase on August 08.

The schedule for Punjab local council poll will also be announced in phases, the ECP said.

The ECP further said that the polling for local council election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be held in two phases, the first phase elections in the province will be held on April 08 and the second phase of election would be held on May 29.

The schedule of the first phase of the polls will be announced on February 12, while the next phase on March 25, the election commission said.

Moreover, the Cantonment Boards’ elections will also be held on April 08 and May 29, the ECP said.

“The election commission held two sessions over the instructions of the supreme court to consider over the local government elections in the provinces, Islamabad and the cantonment boards,” the ECP said in its reply.

The commission also submitted minutes of the meetings.

“The matter of local council elections in Sindh and Balochistan have been postponed till February 11 meeting,” the election commission said.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa said that the country was being destroyed in a systematic manner. He said when it comes to holding local body polls, the provinces start counting off their problems instead of fulfilling their constitutional duty.

He said that Punjab had killed democracy by dissolving the local government before the expiry of its term.

He asked why that was done.

The additional advocate-general Punjab said a new law had been made for local governments in the province.

Justice Isa said that the Punjab government had clearly violated the Constitution by dissolving the local government.

When the bench asked Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan about the dissolution of any government before the expiry date, he admitted that no elected government should be packed unconstitutionally.

The AGP said that he was consistently against the toppling of elected government through Article 58 (2) of the Constitution.

Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till March 1.

On a separate matter, the AGP informed the court that a nationwide census was conducted in 2017, but a final notification has yet to be issued on it. To this, Justice Isa questioned if everyone had gone to sleep after 2017.

The attorney-general told the court that the Sindh government and others had objections to the census, so the federal government had formed a committee to review the matter.

He said the census would be conducted again on 5% of the population blocks in Sindh. There were also objections by the MQM, he added.

Justice Isa told the AGP not to name any political party, reminding him that this was a constitutional matter.

He questioned why no decision could be taken on the census from 2017 till 2021.