A petitioner on Monday told Islamabad High Court Local (IHC) that Islamabad Local Government Act, 2015 was passed without completing due constitutional process. A division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq took up identical petitions regarding local government elections in federal capital filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and others.
Raja Shafqat Khan Abbasi, counsel of one of the petitioners, argued before the court that the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government Act 2015 was passed in haste and without amending Article 140-A of the constitution. "Each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representative of local government," he contended.
He said that prior to promulgating local government act, the parliament should have amended this Article by inserting Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) as it is a separate territory, adding that the government could not announce holding of local government elections in Islamabad by invoking Article 140-A. The counsel further argued that the federal government permitted Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of delimitation of union councils without any law. However, there is no such provision in ICT LG Act which allowed the ECP to delimit the union councils as it was in Punjab, he argued. He further argued that the act defines "youth" as not less than 25 years of age but did not prescribed upper age limit. Later, the court adjourned further hearing of the case till Tuesday (today).