LG system: Electoral process delay frustrates political parties

Coalition group criticises ECP, says elected representatives powerless to help residents

KARACHI: A coalition of different political parties from District West, including elected local bodies representatives, came out to express their anger and frustration on Friday over the delay in the electoral process at Karachi Press Club.

The group, Karachi Ittehad, contesting from District West included the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazal (JUI-F).

PPP’s Najmi Alam said that there is a feeling of humiliation among the elected representatives that they are being stopped from delivering to the people who have elected them. He criticised the election commission and said that cancelling the oath-taking ceremony at the eleventh hour was an insult to the representatives and has created chaos.

PML-N’s nominated chairman for District West Asif Khan said residents in their constituencies expect them to work for them but the representatives are not even able to cover the manholes in the area.



Dawa Khan Sabir, PTI’s vice-chairman from UC-04, said it seems that things are being delayed deliberately. It has been seven months since we have been forced to wait to serve the people, he said. Sabir added that only local bodies can fix the issues of the common man. He pointed out that the city looks like a garbage dump but the government has no interest in empowering the system that was due to be empowered months ago.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed the oath-taking of mayor and deputy mayor, which was scheduled to be held on June 29 in Sindh.

The decision was taken following the retirement of four members of the commission, whose tenure came to end on June 12.

Also present at the press conference were JI’s Fazal Ahad, JUI-F’s Maulana Umar Sadiq and ANP’s Sarfaraz Jadoon.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2016.