ISLAMABAD: To put it simply, the governments are dragging their feet on the issue of holding the much-needed local government elections in Punjab, Sindh and cantonment areas, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

The damning observation came when a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk took up a matter relating to implementation of its March 20 judgment which had vested Election Commission of Pakistan with the authority of carrying out delimitation of the constituencies and then holding the elections in Sindh and Punjab. The verdict had also declared the absence of the local government system for over nine years as against the Constitution and the law.

Also read: ‘LG polls in Sindh, Punjab may be delayed beyond 2015’

The court directed chief secretaries of the two provinces to appear before it on Feb 26, along with secretaries of local government departments, and explain why no assistance was being rendered to the ECP in holding the elections.

At the same, the court warned that it would call the chief ministers if no concrete measures were taken by the two provinces to early conduct the local bodies’ polls.

“The way things are moving suggests that the elections are not going to be held in November this year, and not even the next year as suggested by Punjab,” the chief justice observed.

He was also critical of the fact that Sindh had proposed to hold the elections after conducting a census which would take another year or two.

The last census in Sindh was conducted in 1998 and since then huge demographic changes have taken place, especially in urban areas of the province.

Mohammad Akram Sheikh, the counsel for the ECP, said the two provinces had not provided the commission with necessary data and material – a basic requirement for initiating the process of delimitation of wards.

“I feel that both (Punjab and Sindh) might require directions from the court to expedite the process,” he said, adding that by doing so both provinces were in fact embarrassing the commission before the court.

The court also dictated in its order that Punjab and Sindh were not taking serious steps for assisting the ECP in carrying out the delimitation process.

Referring to the court’s earlier directive for the federal government to promulgate an ordinance empowering the ECP to also hold the elections in all 43 cantonment boards, Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti informed the court that a draft law was pending with the Prime Minister Office for approval. It may be presented in the National Assembly which is currently in session.

The court asked him to inform it about the outcome of the draft law within a fortnight.

In its report, the ECP said the election commissioner of Punjab had informed the commission that the provincial government had provided necessary documents, data and maps relating to 29 districts and these were being examined to ensure if they were correct in all respects. Partial information has been provided about Attock, Faisalabad, Okara, Chiniot, Sialkot and Dera Ghazi Khan districts, while the commission is still waiting for necessary maps relating to the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation.

According to the report, the Punjab government also intimated that after the receipt of accurate and complete information or data, a schedule for delimitation exercise in the province might be announced in March.

About Sindh, the report said the existing provisions of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 required reconsideration for the sake of clarity. It has been submitted to the provincial assembly so that anomalies pointed out by the ECP in the act could be removed.

Published in Dawn February 13th , 2015