LG polls to be held on time as Sindh govt’s objections rejected

Local body elections in Karachi, Hyderabad are set to take place on Oct 23

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided that local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions would be held on the scheduled time while rejecting the Sindh government’s request to postpone the polls.

According to Express News, the Sindh government had written a letter to the ECP on Monday to delay the local government elections due to “logistics and security reasons”.

Sources said that the ECP rejected the Sindh government's request, saying that no solid reasons were given to postpone the polls.

A day earlier, the Sindh police had refused to provide personnel for the security of the polling process.

Bogged down in flood-relief operations, the Sindh police claim that they are short of security personnel and logistic facilities.

Also read: Rumours swirl about further delaying LG polls

The local body elections in Karachi Division are scheduled for October 23, however, the Sindh police have requested the home department to postpone the election for a period of three months.

The Sindh police chief had submitted in writing to the home department that the police and other security officials are busy providing relief to the flood victims and it would not be possible to call in police from other cities of Sindh for the elections.

The police department claimed at least 39,000 policemen are required for the local government elections and there is a shortfall of more than 16,000 officials in the required number.

The second phase of LG polls in Sindh was originally scheduled to be held on July 24. Just days before the scheduled date, the polls were pushed for a month due to incessant monsoon rains in the province.

For the third time, following the request of the provincial government, the election commission again pushed the election from August 28 to October 23.

The letter said that the division has a number of 12,465 local officials while 10,000 officials are serving in the provincial capital city from the other units. The letter further reads that majority of the police personnel are engaged in relief work operations in the flood-affected areas.