Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced to postpone the local government elections in Islamabad, earlier scheduled for December 31.
The ECP five-member bench announced the unanimous verdict reserved earlier after completion of arguments from stakeholders.
Earlier, former attorney general Ashtar Ausaf, who represented the federal government in the instant case, told the ECP bench that union councils had been increased in Islamabad due to the increasing population in the capital.
Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja asked if the census report had been published.
Ausaf told the ECP that the census bureau had already said about the population increase and that the ECP must consider it.
Local government polls
He said that the Islamabad High Court recognised the upsurge in population but it authorised the ECP to take a final decision on local government elections after listening to all stakeholders including the government.
He said that elections were also postponed in the past after the schedule was announced.
The ECP could not deprive citizens of their fundamental rights, he said.
He said that the Parliament has also passed legislation increasing the number of union councils and the poll body should conduct fresh delimitation in Islamabad in light of the new law.
The CEC said that the delimitation had been carried out twice in Islamabad. He also gave the example of Punjab where the delimitation was done twice and was now done for the third time.
Why didn’t’ the government realize at the right time to increase the number of the UCs asked CEC Raja. He said that the government increased the number of UCs once the poll schedule was issued, which put the ECP in a difficult situation.
To this, Ausaf said that if a mistake has been done, then the ECP should assist. To this, the CEC said that a mistake was made once and not again and again.
A member of ECP Justice (retd) Ikramullah Khan said that the general election is also supposed to be held, and wondered what would happen to the future of local body poll in the capital.
CEC Sikandar Raja said that it is feared that the government may change the number of UCs again, and the government has to stop this practice at some point.
Ausaf assured the bench that there would be no law changes and wrapped up his arguments.
After the arguments, the ECP announced postponing the LG polls indefinitely.
