IHC reserves verdict on pleas to halt Islamabad LG polls

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court reserved its verdict on Thursday on petitions seeking to halt local government elections in the capital and suspend the election schedule, after a hearing in which the bench questioned the legal basis for the new delimitation.

Justice Umair Majid Malik heard the petition filed by Chaudhry Amjad Ali. The petitioner's counsel, Adil Aziz Qazi, told the court that delimitation was carried out in 2024 and an election schedule announced, after which a new Local Government Ordinance was introduced in 2026.

The court asked whether the ordinance had become law. Qazi replied that the cabinet had approved it and forwarded it to Parliament.

Qazi argued that if the schedule was not suspended, candidates would have spent millions of rupees on their campaigns. Justice Malik remarked that if someone chose to spend millions of rupees, that was not the court's responsibility, and said it was alarming if a candidate spent Rs10 million on an election but declared expenditure of only Rs100,000.

According to the counsel, the new ordinance led to the withdrawal of the previous election schedule and the cancellation of the earlier delimitation. The existing Act provides for one metropolitan corporation, he said, while the ordinance envisages three.

Qazi contended that after the ordinance ceased to operate, the election schedule was issued without restoring the previous delimitation. The court observed that the key question was under which legal order the new delimitation had been conducted.

The counsel said constituencies for the coming elections contain mixed union councils and wards. The court asked whether an election could be held in such a ward and told the counsel to identify the legal provision requiring a proposer and seconder to belong to the same ward.

Qazi also argued that voter lists had not been provided when the schedule was announced, leaving residents unaware of which ward they belong to. He said few candidates initially filed nomination papers, which led to the deadline being extended to the 8th.

Justice Malik asked whether the counsel was alleging that the entire process was being conducted in haste and in violation of the law.

Qazi asked the court to suspend the election process, saying a stay order had also been granted in an earlier proceeding. The court reserved its ruling at the end of the hearing.