KARACHI: While the Supreme Court is due to start hearing on Monday a petition of Sindh government challenging a Sindh High Court (SHC) judgement that annulled the delimitation exercise carried out for local government elections in the province, the PPP-led provincial government believes the elections are unlikely to be held soon.
A Sindh minister said on Saturday the elections would not be possible for months due to a host of reasons, the foremost being the preparedness of the provincial authorities to hold the polls.
There is also the question of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which too will require considerable time to accomplish the task.
“It will take months to hold the local government elections in Sindh,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro told Dawn.
He said a lot depended on the fate of his government’s petition in the Supreme Court. “The high court has annulled the entire delimitation exercise carried out for the local government elections. It also nullified the third amendment to the LG law,” he remarked.
The minister said the long and cumbersome delimitation exercise would have to be carried out again in case the SC upheld the SHC’s verdict. “Besides, we’ll have to fix the law as per the directions of the apex court.”
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court had allowed the ECP to decide on new schedules for LG elections in Sindh by consulting the provincial government.
“It (also) depends a lot on us to get ready by arranging all the requirements for the elections. As per the constitution, the ECP will need at least 85 days to hold the elections after getting the nod from the provincial authorities,” Dr Mandhro said.
“We were set to hold the elections on time before the opposition parties moved the court,” he added.
Another PPP leader said: “At least five to six months are required for holding the LG elections.”
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), which now has four members in the provincial legislature, has blamed both the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the delay in local government elections.
“These two parties are on the same page on the matter,” said Syed Hafeezuddin, an MPA and PTI’s provincial general secretary. “Both of them are trying hard not to empower the people.”
He said the two parties were opposing each other publicly but in reality were supporting each other. “Their actions clearly show their intentions. Otherwise, we were ready to take part in the elections, no matter how flawed the law was.”
While Mr Hafeezuddin said his party would launch protests if the elections were delayed unnecessarily, a leader of the MQM went even further and said his Karachi-based party would move the court again if the elections were delayed as a strategy.
“We are the party that is always ready for elections and our record shows that we have never gone for delaying local government elections,” said Khwaja Izharul Hasan, the MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh assembly.
He said the PTI indirectly supported the MQM’s stance on the floor of the legislature and also in the court against certain amendments to the local government law. “If the PTI thinks that we are behind a conspiracy for delaying the elections, then they were a part of the scheme because they supported our stance.
“Besides, the PTI should not forget that they haven’t given any date for LG elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where they rule.”
The MQM wanted the local government elections to be held in the shortest possible time in Sindh, he added.