Local body elections on November 3 in cantonment areas

KARACHI: The upcoming local body elections will be held in cantonment areas on November 3 , Express News reported on Tuesday. 

The date for elections in the rest of the country have not been decided yet but the Ministry of Defence and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) agreed that the elections will be held under army supervision. The Supreme Court will also be notified of this decision.

ECP sources had earlier revealed that except for cantonment areas, where pre-requisite formalities like legal framework and delimitations are at final stages, local government elections cannot be held in the rest of the country unless respective provincial governments finalize the required legal framework.

While the Punjab and Sindh provincial governments had passed local government bills, they have still been unable to convince opposition parties to accept the legislation in its present form, leading to protests.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaaf (PTI) government is yet to unveil what it claims to be a model local government system. Similarly, in Balochistan, a local government set up is not in sight in the near future.

According to the constitution, federating units have to pass their respective local government laws, conduct delimitations and frame rules, before approaching the ECP to organise elections. Once these formalities complete, the ECP is required to hold polls within three months.

The country has been without local governments since 2009. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had promulgated the Local Government Ordinance (LGO), 2001, under which a new system of local governments was introduced across the country replacing the 1979 local government system introduced by another military dictator, General Ziaul Haq.

Musharraf’s local government system had constitutional cover till 2009. Once it expired it was not extended and in the 18th constitutional amendment, local governments were made a provincial subject.