Reaching conclusions : Sindh govt hopes to hold LG elections by Dec

MQM, PML-Functional and the PPP, to come up with a new system, but no tangible consensus has been reached so far.

KARACHI:

The Sindh government has fixed yet another deadline for holding the local government elections. This time it is December 2012 - it was decided in a meeting at the Chief Minister House on Friday.

“We have to appear in the Supreme Court on April 30 to submit the Sindh government’s version on the local government elections,” said Advocate General Fatah Malik. “Verification of electoral rolls, de-limitation of constituencies and consensus between coalition partners to put a new system in place are issues that cannot be resolved before December. We will ask the court not to fix the date before that.”

The Supreme Court (SC) had attributed the worsening law-and-order situation in Balochistan and Sindh to the absence of a local government system. The SC Chief Justice had ordered the chief secretaries of Sindh and Balochistan governments to submit their versions on the local government elections. According to the chief justice, a local government can help improve law-and-order.

Although the government has set up a core committee comprising members of the coalition parties, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and the PPP, to try and come up with a new system, but no tangible consensus has been reached so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2012.