To approve the local government adjustment bill for Islamabad and to push for direct elections for the mayor’s position, the government has called an emergency session of the National Assembly for this Thursday (today).
At a time when political parties are already busy campaigning for the local government elections planned for December 31, President Dr. Arif Alvi called the meeting.
In a related development, a candidate for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) each petitioned the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on the matter, with the former requesting a postponement of the elections and the latter requesting the launching of contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his “cabinet” for enacting changes
The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2022 is listed on the 10-point agenda that the National Assembly Secretariat released on Wednesday under the name of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan.
In order to allow members to pass the measure on the same day without referring it to the relevant committee and using the proper parliamentary procedure, the minister will also introduce a resolution to suspend the assembly’s norms.
Before receiving the ceremonial assent of the president, the law must first pass the Senate after being approved by the lower house of parliament.
Recall that the President only prorogued the National Assembly on Tuesday after it had passed the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Bill in a similar manner and after suspending the norms.
The federal cabinet has already approved the amendments to the law through a circular on Dec 19 after which the interior ministry issued a letter increasing the number of seats from 101 to 125. Additionally, a summary for the direct election of the mayor of Islamabad has been authorized by the federal cabinet, and the bill is now being introduced before the National Assembly to make this required adjustment.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), however, declined to postpone the LG polls and vowed to hold them in accordance with the already scheduled schedule despite these developments.
Since the PML-N and PTI have petitioned the IHC on this issue, the outcome of the LG elections now rests with the court’s decision. Shahzad Aurangzeb, the PML-N candidate for Tarlai Union Council, backed the government’s decision to increase the number of UCs in the petition.
The petition claimed that up until the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on April 19, 2010, the majority of the governance of the Islamabad district was carried out without a local government made up of elected citizens’ representatives.
It stated that sections 5 and 6 of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government Act 2015 gave the federal government the authority to declare any area a union council, split an existing area of one union council into two, and notify the number of union councils in Islamabad, noting that the number of union councils had recently increased to 125.
The petitioner pointed out anomalies in the voters’ lists of different areas and said “in such conditions any election that is held would be disputed and cannot be declared as a free and fair election”.
The suit claims that although the federal government was “fully aware” of the court’s instructions, it “acted in blatant disobedience of the rule laid out exhaustively by the court” by expanding the number of UCs just 11 days before the elections.
It was described in the petition as a calculated attempt to thwart the IHC’s decision.
It then asked the court to start a contempt of court case against the prime minister and every federal cabinet official.
