The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday released the schedule for the second phase of local government elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
According to a notification, the electoral watchdog said that polling for the second phase of LG polls in K-P would be held on March 27.
The ECP added that nomination papers could be submitted from February 7 to 11.
According to the notification, the results of the second round of elections would be announced on April 1, 2022.
Separately, K-P Election Commissioner Muhammad Raziq called on Chief Secretary Shahzad Khan Bangash at his office.
Raziq stressed the need to make proper arrangements for holding the upcoming LG elections in a transparent and peaceful manner.
The commissioner informed the chief secretary that the LG polls were held on December 19, 2021 in 17 districts of the province but due to the deaths of some contesting candidates and some untoward incidents, the polls on various seats in six districts were suspended and re-scheduled for February 13, 2022.
The chief secretary assured of all possible cooperation to the election commission. Raziq thanked the chief secretary for his support and cooperation.
In the first phase, the LG elections were held in 17 districts of K-P, in which the federal and provincial ruling party – the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) lost while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl won.
After the defeat, the ruling PTI dissolved its organisational structure and formed a new constitutional committee to devise a strategy for the second phase of LG polls.
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The committee includes Pervez Khattak, Mahmood Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Hammad Azhar, Fawad Chaudhry, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Murad Saeed, Asad Qaiser, Ali Amin Gandapur and others.
At that time, Information Minister Fawad had acknowledged “nepotism” behind the defeat, saying that he had received complaints that tickets for the recently held LG polls in the province were distributed among family members of party leaders.
Fawad said that the new PTI committee would have the top leadership on board and that tickets for elections would now be issued by the party under a new mechanism.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also met Chief Minister Mahmood Khan. Premier Imran told CM Mahmood that tickets would not be awarded on the basis of favouritism and bribery in the future as the PTI had faced a major setback in the K-P LG polls due to “incompetent” people.
Sources said that the CM presented a report to the prime minister detailing the reasons behind the party’s loss in the LG polls.
According to the sources, the report pointed out “mismanagement” and that “workers of the same party contested elections against each other”.
According to the report, poor selection of candidates led to disagreements between party workers due to which the party was not united in the first phase of LG polls.
The PM expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s performance, saying that K-P was ruling PTI’s baseline and they lost due to “internal incompetence”.
(WITH INPUT FROM APP)
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