PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging delimitation of local government constituencies by the provincial government.

The petitioner, former deputy speaker of the provincial assembly and ANP leader Khushdil Khan, sought the court`s orders for local body elections on the basis of fresh delimitation to be carried out by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

A bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and JusticeMohammad Daud Khan announced the order after hearing arguments of both parties.

The respondents in the petition were the Election Commission of Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, provincial local government secretary, and provincial law and parliamentary affairs secretary.

The petitioner prayed the court to declare unconstitutional Section 10 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 under which a delimitation authority was formed and delimitation was carried out.

He sought the court`s orders to declare the delimitation made by the said delimitation authority illegal and to order holding of local government elections on the basis of fresh delimitation to be carried out by the ECP.

The ECP has already announced schedule of local council electionsin the province. Polling for the purpose will take place on May 30, whereas the filing of nomination papers will begin on April 13.

Abdul Lateef Afridi, lawyer for the petitioner, said last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the power to hold elections of the local government was vested with the ECP under Article 140-A of the Constitution of Pakistan.

He said the court observed that the ECP had been mandated to organise and conduct the elections and to make such arrangements as were necessary to ensure that the elections were conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, and that corrupt practices were guarded against.

The lawyer said since the delimitation of constituencies of the local government was part of the process of organising and holding elections honestly, justly and fairly which was the Constitutional mandate ofthe ECP, the power to carry out such delimitation should vest with the commission and not with the delimitation authority.

He said on same ground, the apex court had declared the delimitation of constituencies in Sindh and Punjab by the respective governments unconstitutional as the same were not carried out by the ECP.

Afridi said the delimitation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also carried out by the provincial government on political grounds and in such circumstances, the holding of free and fair elections was not possible.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai said the Supreme Court declared the carrying out of delimitation in Sindh and Punjab illegal and ordered the execution of the exercise by the ECP but no such order was issued for Khyber Palchtunlchwa.