MQM-P’s application for urgent hearing of delimitation cases in Karachi fixed for Jan 10

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday allowed an application seeking urgent hearing of petitions filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) against demarcation and delimitation of electoral constituencies in the metropolis, as the second phase of long-awaited local government polls is finally scheduled for Jan 15.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Kausar Sultana Hussain took up the application, filed by MQM-P’s counsel Advocate Nishat Warsi, who submitted that the second phase of the LG polls was around the corner in Karachi and his client’s pleas filed back in January 2022 and later had still been pending adjudication in the court.

The lawyer stated that his client had challenged the notifications issued by the Sindh government regarding demarcation as well as delimitation of electoral constituencies in almost all districts of the city.

He prayed the court that the pleas should be fixed for an early date so that necessary orders/directives could be passed to the respondent authorities before the Jan 15 polling.

After hearing arguments, the bench allowed the application and fixed the pleas for Jan 10.

The MQM-P has challenged the letters issued last year by the provincial election commission to all district election commissioners of Sindh for delimitation of union councils, union committees and wards in the town committee and municipal committee for conducting forthcoming LG polls.

The ECP had also issued a notification for delimitation of wards in 42 cantonment boards across the country.

MQM-P leaders Amir Khan and Kanwar Naveed Jameel had argued that delimitation exclusively came within the domain of the ECP but the additional deputy commissioners were included in these committees while the final result of the national census had also not been officially publicised.

They prayed court to declare the letters illegal and unlawful since the same were ultra vires of the Election Acts of 2013 and 2017.

It may be recalled that the same bench is scheduled to take up two identical petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) challenging transfer and posting of officers of different departments, particularly the appointment of administrators in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions, ahead of the Jan 15 LG polls “in violation of the Election Act”.

A day earlier, the Sindh government conceded before the court that it had held in ‘abeyance’ the notifications regarding transfer and posting of as many as 70 officers, including the newly-appointed administrators in Karachi and Hyderabad, as the same were issued after announcement of the LG polls’ schedule by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2023