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KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Friday has issued the reserved verdict, rejecting pleas of Sindh government and MQM, and ordering to hold second phase of local government elections in the province. Full text of the Court’s judgment is embedded below.
سندھ ہائیکورٹ نے الیکشن کمیشن کو سندھ میں دوسرے مرحلے کے بلدیاتی انتخابات کرانے کا حکم دے دیا
جماعت اسلامی اور پی ٹی آئی کی درخواستیں منظور، ایم کیوایم کی انتخابات رکوانے سے متعلق درخواست مسترد pic.twitter.com/6gN0Ynzzbn— Shahid Hussain (@ShahidHussainJM) November 18, 2022
The Sindh High Court (SHC) had on November 14 reserved judgment on petitions filed by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against consecutive postponement of the local government elections in Karachi.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Karachi Ameer, Hafiz Naeem-ur- Rehman and Saifuddin Advocate, MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan and Waseem Akhtar, PTI’s Haleem Adil Sheikh and other leaders appeared before the court.
Also read: LG Polls: SHC rejects MQM’s plea for early hearing
In its verdict issued today, the Sindh High Court ordered Election Commission of Pakistan to immediately issue polls’ schedule. Besides this, the SHC ordered Sindh government to ensure security for the second phase of the polls.
The decision by SHC came just a week after Sindh cabinet okayed to delay LG polls by 90 days after removing striking agreement Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to remove a legal impediment in delay of polls. The amendment made to this effect reads, “provided further that Government may extend or curtail the period mentioned in this section if the circumstances so warrant.”
Also read: Sindh cabinet okays postponing LG polls in Karachi by 90 days
During Thursday’s proceedings, it may be recalled, the provincial election commissioner had submitted to SHC that it was ready to conduct elections subject to provision of the requisite security deployment by the police and Rangers.
When the high court asked the Sindh inspector general of police about providing security services to the ECP for holding the local bodies elections, the police chief submitted that the deployment of around 40,000 police force was required for holding the local bodies elections in the Karachi and Hyderabad divisions.
He submitted that around 3,000 cops had been deployed for the security of the defence exhibition 2022 being held in Karachi. The Rangers director general submitted in a statement that the Sindh Rangers would provide 4,000 personnel for the local bodies elections as per directives of the ministry of interior.
Below is full text of Sindh High Court’s verdict, ordering ECP to immediately release dates for 2nd phase of local government polls.
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