Local govt elections: Sindh govt not willing to budge on demand for polls in March

PPP will use legal means to ensure elections in March, say members .

KARACHI: The current impasse over the date of the local government elections is nowhere near over as the Sindh government has decided to use “legal and constitutional means” to postpone the elections till March.

This course of action was revealed in reaction to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s likely rejection of the provincial government’s proposal to change the date of the elections from January 18, 2014.

“We will proceed according to the options available to us under the law and Constitution and hopefully, we’ll be successful,” Sindh minister for information and local government, Sharjeel Memon, told The Express Tribune.

Another Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader, Sharmila Farooqi, said that the only option left was to approach the court. “The election commission is supposed to settle the date through consultations with the provinces.”

Farooqi said that they don’t want elections taking place in haste and want them to be free and fair. “Complaints are being received about the [local government] elections in Balochistan. We don’t want the same scenario.”

The Awami National Party (ANP) sided with PPP on the issue, saying that the party does not want the elections to be held in haste. “We have no issues if the polls are held in March. The process of delimitation and finalising voter lists has yet to be completed,” said ANP’s Bashir Jan. “The boundaries of constituencies have not been decided and candidates have yet to be announced. How can the elections be held  in January?”

Not in haste,  not too late 

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was, however, in favour of holding the elections as soon as possible. “The local bodies system is the foundation of a democratic government and we demand the polls are held at the earliest,” said Rabita Committee member Aminul Haque.

According to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the provincial government did not seem interested in devolution of powers. “The PPP appears very interested in sharing powers with the MQM through a deal,” he said, adding that the JI has a major mandate in the city, as people have elected their leadership to run the city district government three times in the past. “If the PPP continues to create impediments, the JI will approach the courts to develop a process that ensures transparent mechanism for the polls.”

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s MPA Khurram Sher Zaman said that they were prepared for the elections even if held in January.

He, however, shared concerns over whether the government was prepared. “We don’t want the government to use the early date as an excuse for holding haphazard elections. We want them to be prepared so that issues of rigging and voter verification do not arise.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2013.