A full bench of the Lahore High Court Thursday heard a set of petitions against delimitation for the local government election in the Punjab and issued notices to district coordination officers.
The bench directed all parties to submit their arguments on December 27 in this regard.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan headed the bench along with Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan and Justice Shahzada Mazhar.
When proceedings started, a provincial law officer pointed out that two LHC division benches had recently declared that the courts could not entertain any petition against delimitation after announcement of the election schedule.
The bench observed that it would decide the issue after hearing arguments of all parties. Earlier, the matter was referred to the full bench after it was learnt that two parallel judgments on the delimitation issue had created confusion during hearing of the case. Petitioners from various districts told the court that a single bench of the LHC had decided in favour of delimitation while another decided otherwise.
They said two different rulings in the same matter were an anomaly and a larger bench should decide the matter.
The petitioners have also challenged authority of the provincial government to initiate and finalise delimitation.
The bench will resume hearing in the case on Friday (today).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2013.