HYDERABAD: After completion of six-month period and without having been elected as member of the Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) Paretabad`s council, a Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf (PTI) defector Adnan Rasheed, continues to hold dual offices chairman of the town and union committee (UC).

He was elected as town chairman with PPP`s support. He had won local government elections as chairman UC-51 on Jan 15, 2023 as a PTI candidate. Rasheed had then defected from the PTI and won PPP support for the post of town chairman after the latter amended the local government law in May 2023, days before mayoral elections to enable all those who had not won direct elections of the UC to contest for any seat like mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman.

He contested the town chairman`s indirect election apparently as independent candidate and stood elected for the first two years of the term in the wake of equality of votes between him and PTI`s Sohail Jahejo in July 2023.

The matter of equality of votes had actually landed in the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) where a full bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Aug 1 passed an order, calling for deciding the issue of equality of votes under Section 97 read with Section 229 (1) of Elections Act 2017.

The ECP then notified Rasheed as chairman for the first half of the term (Sept 4, 2023 to March 3, 2025). However, under the May 2023 amendment and Section 18-B of the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA) of 2013 `any person so elected as mayor, deputy mayor, chairman or vice chairman of the council shall not continue to hold the said offices unless he is elected as a member of respective `council` within a period of six months of taking oath of the office`.

Under this clause Murtaza Wahab had contested election for the mayoral slot and then got himself elected as Ibrahim Hyderi`s UC-8 chairman unopposed.

In Adnan`s case, six-month period expired on March 3, 2024, but has not yet been elected as TMC council`s member under Section 18-B.

According to PTI`s Sohail Jahejo, Adnan`s rival, he had sent an application to the CEC in February mentioning that Section 37 of the SLGA deals with `prohibition on dual membership`. He said that clause (i) of Section 37 says `save as otherwise provided under this Act no person shall at same time be a member of more than one council`.

District Election Commissioner (DEC) Pervez Kalwar in his Feb 27, 2024 correspondence with the Provincial ElectionCommission (PEC) had referred to application of Jahejo. Kalwar said Adnan was elected as chairman UC-51 and then also contested for chairman of the TMC Paretabad seat under Section 18-B. Due to equal votes, he said, and as a result of ECP`s notification, he was declared chairman for the first term from Sept 4, 2023toSept3,2025.

He informed the PEC that he obtained report from the LG deputy director dated Feb 27 wherein he said Rajput has not tendered resignation as chairman UC-51 and held both positions i.e. chairman of TMC Paretabad and UC-51.

The DEC said Adnan shall not continue his office as chairman TMC Paretabad after the lapse of his sixmonth period as chairman if he was not elected from the council of the TMC Paretabad. He asked the PEC to explain legal question whether he could retain both seats simultaneously after being elected as member of two different councils or otherwise or after being elected as member of TMC Paretabad would resign as UC-51chairman.

Kalwar didn`t respond to the repeated calls made to him to know if he received a reply form the PEC.

The PTI had won majority of directly-contested seats in Paretabad town and in a 29-member house, the PTI had support of 17 members while the PPP enjoyed support of 11, including five from the PTI and one from the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan. As a result of equal votes, the RO had first declared Sohail Jahejo returned candidate by drawing a lot in July.Adnan questioned the decision before the ECP which ruled that the `matter of equality of votes between two contesting candidates of the PTI for Paretabad town shall be decided in line with Section 97 read with Section 229 (1) of Elections Act 2017. The ECP had set aside the July 11 win of Jahejo, who was declared returned candidate in line with Rule 41 of the Sindh Local Council (Election) Rules 2015.

The ECP had said Section 53 of SLGA 2013 was amended vide Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2019 under which `in case of equality of votes, tribunal shall declare both contesting candidates as returned candidates and each one of them shall be entitled to represent constituency in council for half of its term of office while under its sub-section 2 tribunal shall draw a lot to determine as to `who shall serve as member of council for first half of its term of office`.

Jahejo, like Murt aza Wahab, had contested town`s chairman election in line with the May 11,2023 amendment to the SLGA 2013 whose Section 18-B enabled any unelected person to contest polls and then he/she has to be elected as a member of respective council within six months to continue in the office.

Adnan Rasheed said that election was not yet announced for seat of TMC Paretabad council`s vice-chairman and referred to Section 37(3) of SLGA 2013 in support of his argument. He said he had himself written a letter to the authorities. He, however, avoided sharing that letter.