The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has challenged the postponement of the second phase of local government (LG) elections in Sindh.
In his petition filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC), PTI leader Ashraf Jabbar Qureshi took the stance that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the schedule of the second phase of LG elections in Sindh on April 29, 2022.
Several petitions were filed in the SHC against the schedule of first and second phases of the LG elections, but during the hearing of these applications, the law officer of the ECP said that the new elections should be held within 120 days after the dissolution of the local governments as per the Local Government Ordinance.
The law officer further said that 2,700 candidates had submitted their nomination papers for the LG elections. He also informed that court that 300 million ballot papers had been printed at a cost of Rs500 million.
After hearing the ECP law officer, the SHC had rejected all the petitions against the LB elections schedule.
However, the ECP later postponed the second phase of LG elections on July 20 in "malicious connivance" with the MQM-Pakistan and PPP, the petitioner, Jabbar Qureshi, said.
He maintained that if there was rain forecast, then the elections could have been postponed for a week. He requested the SHC to annul the ECP's July 20 notification of elections postponement and to direct the ECP to hold the elections in the first week of August.
Talking to the media after filing the application, Jabbar Qureshi said that a large number of candidates were contesting the local bodies elections; therefore, the ECP's order should be suspended with immediate effect and the second phase of local elections should be held this week.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2022.
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