President Arif Alvi returned the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022 unsigned in terms of clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution that proposed an increase in the number of union councils (UCs).
The President returned the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill unsigned observing that it would further delay the Local Government elections.
President Secretariat in a Press release quoted the President as saying that “Actions of the Federal Government taken in hurry on resulted in delaying election process twice, which was anathema to democracy”
It was further stated, “elections could not be held in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) due to the malafide actions of the federal government.
After the completion of the delimitation of 50 Union Councils, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced elections of local councils in ICT. Despite the announcement of the polling date, the government enhanced the number of union councils from 50 to 101, resulting in the postponement of elections, President Alvi stated.
President Dr. Alvi noted that once the demarcation was done and ECP had announced polls for December 31 the current bill changed the number of UCs to 125 which led to another postponement. He also noted that the mode of elections of the mayor and deputy mayor was also changed via the bill after the announcement of the election schedule.
Remember here one thing Islamabad High Court issues the order to ECP for holding local government elections by 31st December 2022 due to not having proper arrangments and the decision of increasing UC’s ECP failed to conduct the Polls in Federal Capital.
Keeping this in view Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a contempt of court petition against the federal government and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in case of failure to comply with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order related to holding the Local Government (LG) elections in Islamabad.
According to sources, the decision was taken during a Party meeting of PTI Islamabad leadership. The contempt petition will be filed in the Islamabad High Court. The PTI spokesperson said that the Chief Election commissioner would be responsible for not complying with the Islamabad High Court Order regarding conducting Local Government Elections in Federal Capital.
Read More :PTI to file Contempt Plea against the ECP for not holding LG Polls according to Court Order
