Alvi accuses federal government of ‘malafide’ actions, says bill would further ‘delay polls’
ISLAMABAD
President Arif Alvi on Sunday refused to sign the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, citing that it would “further delay the already postponed local government polls in Islamabad.”
A saga has been surrounding the execution of local government polls in the federal capital. Earlier, in a frantic attempt to get the local government (LG) polls in the federal capital delayed, the National Assembly on Thursday had passed a government bill seeking to increase the number of union councils from 101 to 125.
Making it a ground, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had postponed the LG polls in Islamabad – set to take place on December 31, 2022.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had challenged the ECP’s verdict in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The IHC on Friday evening ordered ECP to conduct the LG polls as per schedule – which could not be executed by the electoral watchdog, citing technical inabilities apparently.
On Sunday, in a statement released by the President’s Secretariat, President Alvi “returned unsigned the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in terms of clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution”.
The bill was passed by both houses of parliament on December 22 and 23 respectively, that aimed basically at increasing number of Union Councils (UCs) in the capital. However, the President has now refused to sign off the bill.
In the president’s statement, the bill was returned by observing that it would further delay the local government elections.
“Actions of the federal government taken in hurry resulted in delaying election process twice, which was anathema to democracy,” the statement said.
After the completion of delimitation of 50 union councils, Alvi said, the ECP announced elections of local government in ICT on July 31, 2022.
“Despite announcement of polling date, federal government increased number of union councils from 50 to 101, resulting into postponement of elections,” he added.
