KARACHI: In view of the directives issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to hold local body elections, the provincial government of Sindh submitted its response in the apex court pertaining to the matter.
The Sindh government presented its stance saying that it was ready to hold the local body elections scheduled for the third week of December 2013.
Advocate General Sindh, Khalid Javed, told Dawn.com that the provincial government would complete all the necessary delimitation work by October 15 after which it would be ready for the local government elections.
However, since it was the duty of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct the local body elections, the Supreme Court’s response on the Sindh government’s stance was awaited.
The governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Balochistan have not submitted their responses in the Supreme Court regarding the local body elections.
Meanwhile, Sindh Assembly opposition leader, Faisal Sabzwari, told Dawn.com that local government system should introduce some amendments in local government bill in accordance with Article 140A of the Constitution.
He moreover added that the court should look into the matter because if the first democratically elected civilian government was conducting local body elections, it had to be done in the right manner.
Furthermore, Provincial Information Minister, Sharjeel Memon, said the local government bill was passed in the assembly after holding deliberations.
He further said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was welcome to propose any amendments, adding that every law had scope for improvements and that all political parties of Sindh were consulted and their proposals were made a part of the local government law.
Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered local body elections to be held on September 15. “It is necessary to hold the local government elections not only to fulfill the constitutional command but also to ensure participation of people for good governance,” the court observed.
However, it was not possible to conduct the local body elections and only two of the four provincial assemblies Punjab and Sindh passed their local government laws.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the party leading the provincial government, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI), was still in the process of negotiating a draft for a local government law with its coalition partners before it could present it to the provincial assembly. In Balochistan, there simply seemed to be little progress towards the drafting and the passage of a local government law.
The law was just the beginning of the process for local government elections. It was to be followed by delimitation of constituencies in line with the new law and the entire nomination and voting process which at the minimum took 60 days to complete. These factors subsequently led to the delay.