MQM-P moves court to freeze LG polls until laws amended

• MQM-P leader Wasim Akhtar filed petition in SHC.
  
• Petition says imperative to review legal complications.
• LG can't be empowered without amendments in laws: SC

KARACHI: The MQM-P Saturday moved the Sindh High Court to freeze the local government election until needed amendments are made in relevant laws to invest local bodies with effective powers.

The political party in its petition, filed by MQM-P leader Wasim Akhtar in the SHC, said it was imperative to review the legal complications before local government elections. 

“We should also be heard out as responders in the PTI and JI petitions against the repeated postponement of the local elections," the MQM-P said in the petition. 

It said that in light of the Supreme Court's decision that local bodies could become truly authorised without new legislation.

Earlier on Friday, the Sindh cabinet approved delaying local government elections in Karachi Division for another 90 days.

It was revealed in a letter from the local government to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Friday.

The move comes a day after SHC censured the ECP for sitting on the local bodies (LB) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, warning them against further delay.

The proposal for delaying the elections was given go-ahead through a circulation summary.

Sindh cabinet took this action by invoking the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.

The SHC on Thursday came down hard on ECP for sitting on the local bodies elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, warning them against further delay.

The court voiced its displeasure over the holdup during the hearing of the petitions submitted by PTI and JI.

A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Sindh High Court Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh, took up the case.

During the hearing, Justice Yousaf Ali, questioned the ECP counsel why local government elections were being delayed repeatedly. CJ Shaikh remarked that it was ECP’s responsibility to hold local government elections.

The ECP’s counsel, in his reply, said it was a public holiday on Wednesday due to which the commission’s meeting could not be held.

“It’s ECP, not a school. So what if it was a holiday? The meeting could have been held. Enough is enough. Go hold LB elections,” the Chief Justice SHC remarked.

The court sought reports from IG Police and DG Rangers Sindh on the total strength of personnel in the province and how many of them are deployed in flood-affected areas.