Muttahida Qaumi Movement has welcomed the Sindh High Court decision of declaring amendments to the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 unconstitutional.
The Sindh High Court on Monday declared amendments to the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 unconstitutional.
A divisional bench of the court made the decision after receiving multiple requests from political parties including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamaat-e-Islami, which termed the amendments to the bill unlawful.
MQM Chief Altaf Hussain in a statement thanked the SHC Chief Justice and all judges and congratulated the people over this verdict.
He also lauded the great work of MQM barrister Farogh Naseem.
Meanwhile MQM barrister Farogh Naseem talking to the media also lauded the court’s decision.
“The court’s decision is a welcome one,” he said.
He said sections 3, 4, 8, 13 as well as subsections 12 and 14 which had been added to section 18 of the bill were cause for disparities in the delimitation process. Therefore the court had declared these amendments unconstitutional, he added.
As a result of the delimitation, some units had 10,000 people in them while others had 50,000 and there was no uniformity in the divisions, Naseem said, speaking to the media. The amendments that were against the fundamental right of ‘one man-one vote’ have been declared unconstitutional, he added.
The court said elections would not be delayed because of this decision, the barrister stated. He also stated that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had told him earlier that the Sindh government would follow the court’s decision on this issue.
The court, in its 78-page decision, declared the November 13 notification for delimitation in rural Sindh, and the November 21 notification for Karachi illegal.
It further stated that the elections should be held according to the delimitation that was done for the 2001 elections, adding that if new delimitation was considered necessary, then an impartial forum should be made for that purpose.
Earlier, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had rejected the amendments in the Sindh Local Government Bill 2013, terming it a ‘black law’.
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