Lahore High Court declares Punjab government delimitations illegal

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday gave a verdict on the delimitations carried out by the Punjab Government in order to conduct the local bodies’ elections. The full bench of the LHC (Lahore High Court) declared the exercise illegal and stated that only the ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) has the authority to conduct delimitations. 

The bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, gave a short verdict, in which Sections 8 & 9 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 were struck down as contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan. These sections give exclusive delimitation rights to the provincial governments.

The bench, also including Justice Muhammad Farrukh Irfan Khan and Justice Attir Mahmood held that the Punjab government needs to bring the delimitation process under the authority of the ECP.

Section 8 (3) of the PLGA reads, “The government shall, in the prescribed manner, delimit a union council into six wards for the election of members on general seats and into two wards, consisting of three adjoining wards of the union council, for the election of the two seats reserved for women.”

Section 9 (1) of the same reads, “The government shall, in the prescribed manner, delimit a municipal committee into wards for election of members of the municipal committee on general seats.”

The LHC bench remarked that the completion of the delimitation process within a period of 11 days was quite astonishing.

 “It is not a Radcliffe Award which defined the boundaries of two countries with the stroke of a pen,” the bench further stated.

Around 400 petitioners have challenged the delimitations, submitting that they were conducted by officials who kept the interests of the ruling party in mind.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=42487

Posted by Hunain Naseer on Jan 1 2014. Filed under Latest News, National. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.