ECP announces LG by-polls schedule in Hazara

LG-Election to be held in Abbottabad and Mansehra on May 22

ABBOTABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the local governments (LG) by-elections schedule for Hazara region.

The ECP on Tuesday announced the schedule for the Local Government (LG) by-elections in Hazara, which would be held on May 22, 2022. According to the ECP schedule, LG by-polls would be held in two districts of the Hazara division including Abbottabad and Manshera, where during the second phase of LG polls voting could not be held due to the death of candidates.

By-polls would be held on May 22 while candidates may submit their nomination papers from April 21 to 23 and the list of candidates would be displayed on April 25. From April 26 to 28 scrutiny of the candidates would be completed and on April 29, 30 objections against the candidates could be filed.

On May 6, ECP would decide the objections against the candidates while on the 12 of May and final lists of candidates would be displayed and election signs would be allotted on the same day. In district Abbottabad, the by-polls would be held for the Neighborhood Council (NC) Havelian Urban-I where during the second phase of the LG election the candidate for youth died, in a similar way for district Mansehra due to the death of a women candidate for NC-I Sian Abad by-polls would be held.

LG by-polls would be held from 8am to 5pm without any delay under strict security measures in two districts of Hazara while on May 23 unofficial results of the election would be announced.

The notification issued by ECP described that a code of conduct banning all executive authorities in the federation and provinces from either announcing any development project or using state resources in the election could influence the elections in favour of a particular candidate.

Meanwhile, Federal Ombudsman Ijaz Ahmad Qureshi on Tuesday took notice of the mismanagement of Utility Stores Corporation (USC) and the problems of people in utility store outlets.

He directed the regional head of Abbottabad to visit the outlets of the utility store and send a detailed report to the federal ombudsman on the various food items being provided to the public in the various stores.

Sharing details of the USC Abbottabad Region to the Federal Ombudsman, Zonal Head Berg Hina said that at present the Zonal Head has 163 tons of ghee, 116 tons of sugar and a large quantity of flour and other food items. She added that there is no shortage of supply of any kind of goods in Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Gilgit-Baltistan and Swabi districts

The federal ombudsman's team also inspected two USC outlets, one at Prince Masjid Chowk in Abbottabad and the other at Jhangian Murree Road, where they found long queues of people at stores to buy cheap items. They also found that only one salesman was providing services to the people at the counter, the federal ombudsman's team instructed zonal manager Berg Hina to install two counters instead of one and to deploy two salesmen for the convenience of customers.

The team also instructed the zonal head to set up tents in front of the store for the convenience of the people and to protect them from extreme heat. On the occasion consumers also lodged their complaints in the presence of the federal ombudsman's team.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2022.