PTI’s Mehmoodur Rashid says a writ petition will be filed in the court next week. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The opposition parties in the Punjab Asembly intend to challenge before the Lahore High Court a recently promulgated ordinance providing for indirect election to reserved seats in local governments across the province, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed told The Express Tribune on Friday.
He said the PTI was in consultation over the matter with other opposition parties in the Punjab Assembly. He said the party was in contact with the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League -Q and the Jamaat-i-Islami to develop a consensus on taking the matter to court. He said a writ petition would be filed against the ordinance in the Lahore High Court next week.
Under the ordinance recently promulgated by the provincial government, indirect elections would be held to seats reserved in the local councils for women, youth, workers/peasants and non Muslims.
Rashid said by leaving candidates for the reserved seats at the mercy of elected members, the provincial government had deprived the electorate of the right to elect all members of local councils. “We will register our protest against the ordinance at the floor of the House [provincial assembly] as well,” he said. “The indirect polling provision will kill the spirit of local bodies,” he said. ‘We have received complaints against indirect polling from several organisations,” he said.
On Friday, the PTI minorities wing staged a demonstration against proposed indirect election to seats reserved for minorities.
The demonstration in front of Lahore Press Club was led by Shanila Ruth, for the party’s minorities wing president. Speaking to the protesters, Ruth demanded direct elections on seats reserved for minorities.
Earlier in the week, the PTI had announced it would oppose in the Punjab Assembly the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) proposal to postpone local elections in the province.
PML-Q lawmaker Vickas Hasan Mokal said his party leadership was still deliberating a strategy on the matter. He said by introducing indirect polling on reserved seats the government would harm the local government system. “On one hand, there is a lot of talk about equal rights for all citizens of the country. On the other hand, the government is preventing some communities from exercising their right to elect their representatives,” Mokal said. He said indirect election to reserved seats would worsen the condition of marginalised segments of the society. “The opposition had told the government that direct participation should be assured in local government polls,” he said.
PPP’s Parliamentary Leader in the PA Qazi Ahmad Saeed dismissed as a “fraud” the ordinance proposing indirect election to reserved seats. He said his party planned to challenge it at all available forums. “If it means we need to seek legal recourse, so be it,” he said.
He dismissed a suggestion that cost of holding the elections could be a consideration behind the indirect election proposal. He said the government could use the indirect election provision to sabotage the election outcome. He also accused the government of trying to delay the polls using various pretexts.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2015.
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