Local body polls: National Party announces it will participate in elections

The announcement comes despite the party stance that elections are unlikely to be held in Balochistan.

QUETTA: The vice president of National Party (NP), the leading coalition partner in Balochistan government, Senator Hasil Bizenjo has announced that his party will take part in upcoming local bodies’ elections despite his party’s reservations that elections are unlikely in Balochistan, given the current circumstances.

“Supreme Court’s (SC) orders remind of the dictator Musharraf, who gave the parties only two weeks to prepare for elections during his regime. We are aware that practically it is impossible to hold local government elections in December, given the cold weather and deteriorating law and order situation,” Senator Bizenjo told reporters on Monday.

The senator said his party has decided to contest the local bodies’ elections during an emergency meeting in Quetta where, except for the party chief, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, who was on an official visit abroad, all parliament members and ministers were present.

Senator Bizenjo added that elections were against the wish and the will of the people of Balochistan. “Most people have already migrated to warmer places, which makes it impractical to hold elections in all the districts. Moreover, conducting elections in the quake-struck Awaran district, where people are yet to resume normalcy, is also not viable,” he said.

The NP leader said his party had already filed petitions requesting the SC to postpone the elections but with no avail. He added that for the sake of obeying SC’s orders the party had decided to take part in the elections.

“Poll results will not be good because of the current situation in the province. Moreover, the printing press will not be able to print ballot papers in such a short span of time,” Bizenjo said.

He said the SC should have considered requests not only Balochistan’s behalf but also Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The party directed its workers to submit their nomination papers and to start preparing for the elections.

Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Ideology has urged the federal government to postpone the elections until flaws in electoral lists are addressed. Addressing   a separate news conference, Provincial chief of JUI-I said the SC should reconsider its orders and postpone elections because there are possibilities of rigging.