Local bodies election delayed in Sindh owing to floods

Minister says elections for local bodies could be held after a month's delay in Oct or Nov instead of September


Web Desk August 01, 2015
PHOTO: AFP

Minister for Local Bodies Nisar Shah said on Saturday that local bodies’ elections would not take place in September in Sindh.

Addressing the media, Nisar Shah said that election for local bodies could be held after a month's delay in October or November on accounts of rains and floods. He further clarified that it was the Election Commission of Pakistan that had requested the Supreme Court to delay the polls owing to floods in the province.

“We gave our stance afterwards, endorsing what the ECP had said since owing to rains and floods, we cannot organize the elections properly,” the minister said.

Read: Local government elections: Punjab ‘smartly’ changes poll rules

He also said that Sindh government does not want delay in the elections but due to rains and floods they are unable to hold elections. “But I have said earlier as well that 2015 is the local bodies election year,” Shah added.

Earlier on July 25, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had urged the ECP not delay local government elections in either the Punjab and Sindh on account of floods.

Speaking to reporters after a divisional meeting of the party, PPP central Punjab president Manzoor Wattoo said: “If elections can be held during wars in other countries, why can they not be held in our country during floods?”

Read: Local bodies’ elections: A vicious cycle of usurping power

Wattoo said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif did not want local government elections because he liked concentration of powers. “He wants to continue to spend billions of rupees from local government funds on his whims,” he said.

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