Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed the plea of Sindh government that sought suspension of the court's order in which Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was directed to conduct the elections for the representatives of local governments in the province through secret balloting. SHC bench, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, dismissed the petition after it was apprised that the Sindh government has challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
As the respondents already approached the Supreme Court for remedy, the petition was dismissed. Earlier on 10th February, SHC directed the provincial election authorities to conduct the elections of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice chairmen of local councils in Sindh through secret balloting.
Just after a day of the verdict, the Sindh government requested the SHC to suspend the operation of its order against show of hands procedure. Later it approached the Apex court against the verdict of SHC that was pronounced on the identical petitions filed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PMLF). MQM and PMLF had requested the court to annul the fourth amendment to Sindh Local Government Bill 2013, which bind the members to cast their votes by showing their hands instead of secret voting for electing mayors and deputy mayors. They argued that Article 266 of Pakistan's constitution allowed secret polling.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) argued there was a rigging suspicion if the elections for mayor and other local government representatives were held through secret balloting hence show of hands to surmount the rigging chances.
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