Alvi refuses to sign bill proposing increase in Islamabad union councils

ISLAMABAD: Arif Alvi returned a government bill proposing an increase in the number of union councils in Islamabad unsigned, calling it an “anathema to democracy” which would “further delay local government elections” in the capital city.

The move came days after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed “for the time being” the much-anticipated elections for local governments in Islamabad scheduled for December 31 on the pretext of an increase in the number of union councils.

In the third week of December, the central government, in a frantic attempt to delay the vote, announced an increase in the number of seats from 101 to 125, at a time when the vote was just round the corner.

This increase in the union councils required new delimitations — a process that is expected to take several months to complete.

Initially, the election tribunal rejected these amendments saying the move was against the election laws, and announced the elections would be held per the schedule.

But, on December 22, the government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition passed a government bill seeking to increase the number of union councils, less than 10 days ahead of the polling day.

The bill was passed with the house visibly lacking quorum throughout the proceedings which lasted less than 40 minutes.

On Sunday, the president returned the bill in terms of clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution with the observation that it would “further delay the local government elections”.

Alvi said it was also stated that local government elections were delayed in Islamabad due to “malafide actions” of the federal government.

The president noted the ECP had announced the local elections for July 31 of last year after completing the delimitation of 50 union councils. He noted the polling day had to be delayed as the federal government increased the number of union councils.

Once the demarcation was done and the commission had announced polls for December 31, the current bill changed the number of union councils which led to another postponement, Alvi said.

He also noted that the mode of elections of the mayor and deputy mayor was also changed via the bill after the announcement of the election schedule.

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