ECP to meet regularly over Sindh LG polls issue

Approves PM Imran’s plea seeking a year to hold intra-party elections

ISLAMABAD:

Keeping in view the “inept” attitude of the Sindh government, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday decided to meet regularly to ensure the holding of local government elections in the province and summoned Sindh chief secretary, local government secretary and provincial advocate general on September 7.

The election supervisor also granted a major relief to the PTI after approving Prime Minister Imran Khan’s application seeking a year for his intra-party elections.

Earlier this week, the Sindh government in a meeting with the ECP had again expressed its inability to hold the local government polls due to a pending case in the court on the 2017 census results.

The chief secretary told the election supervisor that the Sindh government could not hold local body elections as it had reservations over the 2017 census results and wanted to make changes in Sindh Local Government Act, which could take around six months.

The ECP secretary observed that the term of local governments in Sindh had expired on August 30 last year and the commission must hold polls within 120 days after the expiry of the term.

The Sindh government was asked to provide details of the number of union councils, maps and other data to the ECP so that it could proceed with the preparations of elections and delimitation of constituencies.

On Wednesday, the ECP met under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and decided to meet regularly to ensure the holding of local body elections in Sindh.

The commission will hold the first hearing on the issue on September 7 and issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary, local government secretary and provincial advocate general.  It will also seek assistance from the Attorney General for Pakistan.

The ECP maintained that holding local government polls in Sindh was its constitutional and legal responsibility and that the provincial government should assist it in the matter.

On the issue of holding local government elections in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the election supervisor rejected the impression that it had agreed to delay polls in the province.

The ECP spokesperson noted that they had a meeting with the K-P government on the issue and that the election commission had not agreed with the provincial authority’s advice to hold local body polls in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the PTI received a major relief from the ECP after the commission approved Premier Imran Khan’s application seeking a year for the intra-party elections.

The election supervisor directed the ruling party to conduct intra-party elections by June 13 next year.

In a letter to the premier, the commission maintained that the PTI was bound to hold intra-party elections after every four years according to the party’s constitution.

Under the ruling party’s 2019 amended constitution, it was to hold intra-party polls in 18 months. The premier had sought a year’s time in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The ECP also reinstated the victory notification of Muhammad Salman Naeem – a Punjab Assembly member elected from Multan – in view of the Supreme Court’s decision. The commission had suspended the notification in March 2019.

Naeem had defeated Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in 2018 general elections from PP-2017 Multan.