Govt, ECP contest IHC’s decision to hold LG elections in capital

The federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) contested the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) directive to hold local elections in the federal capital on Saturday (December 31).

The electoral body asked for an immediate hearing when an intra-court appeal was filed before the high court. The IHC registrar’s office, however, objected to the appeal, claiming that it lacked the necessary paperwork.

According to local media reports, the ECP’s gal team is attempting to resolve the objection.

The IHC ordered the electoral body to hold the elections by the timetable on Friday after admitting the petitions submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) seeking to overturn the ECP’s decision to postpone the LG elections.

A change in the union councils of the capital area caused the ECP to postpone the local government elections scheduled for the federal capital’s federal capital on December 31.

The federal government was urged to make sure that “it aids the election commission in holding the local government polls” by the high court in its one-page brief order.

The order further said that both the December 27 notification from the election commission and the December 19 notification from the Ministry of the Interior had been declared invalid.

After the federal government raised the number of union councils (UCs) in the nation’s capital without consulting the latter, the electoral commission postponed the voting. The court had voiced its disapproval of the federal government’s stance before reserving the ruling.

The court expressed its disappointment with the government’s lack of involvement.