-Rules Local Government elections in Karachi, Hyderabad other districts to be held on scheduled date
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) seeking postponement of the second phase of local government elections in Sindh.
The election in 16 districts of Sindh including Karachi and Hyderabad will be held on August 28.
The court ordered the political party to approach the related forum for redressal of its grievances on delimitations.
During the hearing, the Sindh advocate general termed the election for Karachi mayorship as the ‘bottom line’ of the political parties seeking postponement of polls.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial said to MQM-P’s counsel Farogh Naseem that it was clear in the order of the Sindh High Court that the party he was representing did nothing on delimitation issue till June.
He directed Naseem to amicably resolve the issue of delimitations by sitting with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the delimitation committee.
The court ruled that the points that were not raised before the high court could not be heard exclusively by the top court. It added that the LG elections in Karachi, Hyderabad and other districts will not be delayed anyhow.
The top court also dismissed the plea filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the implementation of the court order issued on February 1.
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) hailed the decision of the top rejecting MQM-P’s plea and directing the organization of the local bodies elections on the scheduled date.
The candidate for Karachi Mayor from JI, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, congratulated the citizens of the megacity and termed the top court’s decision as a ‘seal on ways of escape from LG polls that political parties were trying to use’.
Rehman alleged that all parties that were pushing SC to delay the polls were in reality involved in everything against which they approached the court.
