IHC declares Islamabad LG ordinance 2021 invalid

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday declared the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2021 invalid and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct local bodies’ elections under the Local Government Act 2015.

Presiding over the case hearing, IHC judge Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani gave the decision on several petitions – filed by Union Council Chairperson Sardar Mehtab, Capital Development Authority’s labour union, and CDA officers association – against the LG Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2021. Their lawyers presented arguments in the case, local media reported.

The government lawyer said that ordinance was issued on November 13 after the parliament session ended on November 19 The local government elections are proposed to be held this year in May under the law. The federal government had promulgated the presidential ordinance to hold new LG polls after the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad was dissolved

last year.