Sana warns of 'clash' if Sindh LG polls held today

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday warned the quarters concerned that there was a possibility of a "clash" in Sindh due to differences between political parties regarding holding local body polls as per the ECP schedule in Karachi and Hyderabad on Jan 15 (today).

The minister in a statement expressed deep concern over the situation, saying that “miscreants” could take advantage of the potential clash.

Without mentioning details about the nature of the conflict, he said that a small incident could turn into something more serious in either city.

Sana urged the political parties and the electoral bodies to understand the severity of the situation, emphasising the need to “diffuse the tense atmosphere”.

He furthered that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the judiciary should take notice of the seriousness of the matter and find an appropriate solution in light of the Constitution and the law.

Sana’s statement came after a dispute between the ECP and the Sindh government about the schedule of the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

The Sindh government on Saturday reiterated its request to postpone the LG elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

A letter issued on Saturday by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government had again requested the ECP to postpone the LG polls.

The request, however, came less than 24 hours after the ECP had rejected the provincial government's request for the postponement of LG polls, saying that elections would be held on Jan 15 (today) as per schedule.

The electoral watchdog had suspended the notification of the Sindh government against the Sindh LG Act, 2013. It had also rejected the provincial government's request to postpone elections in Dadu district due to the post-flood situation.

On the possible dissolution of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly, the interior minister claimed that the safety of people's lives and property, as well as law and order in the province were not the priority of the provincial chief minister.

He said that K-P CM Mahmood Khan’s energies were focused on dissolving the provincial assembly.

Sana added that the recent incidents reflected that the K-P government did not learn any lesson from the terrorist attack on the Bannu Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) headquarters.

He stated that the federal government was deeply concerned about the constantly deteriorating law and order situation in K-P.

He questioned that if the K-P police were not safe from terrorist attacks, what would happen to the security of the people?

The minister condemned the terrorist attack on the Sarband police station in Peshawar, expressing his condolences to the families of the martyrs.