ISLAMABAD:The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday served notices to respondents in an intra court appeal of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) regarding the local body elections in federal capital.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhter Kayani and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir heard the appeal of PTI against the decision of single member bench. The single member bench had ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to decide the matter related to the increasing the number of union councils in ICT after hearing the Federation.
Petitioner Ali Nawaz Awan’s counsel Taimoor Aslam Advocate adopted the stance that there was another judgment of this court related to the matter. Giving reference of the court of Justice Mohsin Akhter Kayani, he said that the bench had terminated the local body ordinance which had increased the number of union councils from 50 to 101.
Recently, the government had increased the number of UCs from 101 to 125 but the election schedule had already been announced and all preparations were completed.
The lawyer said that the federal government had not challenged the decision of ECP dated December 20, instead it was challenged by the administrator MCI through advocate general.
The court questioned whether it could issue directives to ECP if the institution didn’t conduct elections. Justice Kayani remarked that first previous government was not interested in LG elections and now the current set-up was doing the same.
The court noted that the government had given undertaking to it regarding elections on 101 UCs. The lawyer prayed the court to stop the ECP from giving decision on the appeal of Federation and conditioned it with the verdict of court.
The court rejected the request of petitioner to grant stay order and adjourned further hearing of the case till Wednesday.