KARACHI: The SHC ruled Thursday that the city’s mayoral election would depend on the appeal challenging the local government law’s modifications that allow unelected candidates to run for mayor and deputy mayor.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed denied Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Emir Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman’s request for a stay on the mayor and deputy mayor elections. Said the LG Act 2023 and its amendments could not be suspended.
The court found no grounds for interim relief, but the petition’s conclusion would determine the election’s outcome.
The petitioner requested temporary relief to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) mayor and deputy mayor election notification.
The request submitted because the notification was ultra vires the 1973 Constitution, unlawful, and without legal effect. He tried to prevent the ECP and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation from acting under Section 18-B of the Amendment Act.
His counsel noted that Section 18 of the Act required a candidate for chairman or mayor to be a member of the corporation/council.
Before the 2023 Act, a person had to undergo a direct electoral procedure to run for either of those offices.
Moreover, The provincial government eliminated the requirement by inserting Section 18-B into the 2023 Act, allowing anyone to elected.
While, He claimed that Section 3 of the 2023 Act violated the constitutional precept of representative democracy at LG level, which vests executive authority in elected representatives of the people, as stated in Article 140-A.
Right to sue
The Sindh advocate general questioned the petitioner’s locus standi (right to sue) and petition maintainability.
Moreover, He claimed the petitioner’s political party’s provincial assembly representatives unanimously approved for the 2023 Act.
AG said that the PA enacted the 2023 Act on May 11, the governor assented the same day, and the Sindh Government Gazette published it on May 12.
He stated the petition held back as a tactical manoeuvre to delivered on June 7, a week before the election.
AG contended that the PA had legislative authority to pass the 2023 Act and that its contents were constitutional.
He stated the modified Act should in force until the constitutionality challenge resolved.
In his petition, North Nazimabad UC-8 chairman Rehman claimed that the impugned amendment was promulgated and deemed to have taken effect on December 31, 2021, infringing on a closed electoral process by allowing unelected persons to be elected mayor and chairman.
On Thursday, 173 votes elected Wahab mayor. He defeated 160-vote JI’s Rehman.
