Govt urged to hold polls according to SC schedule

Wattoo asks govt to hold local elections throughout the Punjab on the same day

LAHORE:

Several opposition and civil society members urged the government on Thursday to hold local elections according to the schedule given by the Supreme Court and withdraw the local government amendment ordinance.

The demands were made at a news conference organised by a non-government organisation, the Development Dimensions Society.

Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MPA Sadia Sohail Rana said that the government was making efforts to weaken the local government system. “It wants to keep all powers in its own hands. The ruling party has always been insecure when it comes to local government system. Parliamentarians in the Punjab Assembly have to put pressure on the government to withdraw the ordinance,” she said.

Najmi Saleem, a former MPA from Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) minorities Wing, said that being allowed to choose their representatives was a basic right of the people. “The government should allow direct elections to all seats, including reserved seats for women, labour, youth and minorities. Local governments are the nursery for democracy. By amending the Local Government Act, 2013, the Punjab government has ruined the whole system,” she said.

Former PML-Q MPA Amna Ulfat said that the government was not interested in empowering people at the grassroots level. “The government is trying to engineer local government elections. They have taken away electoral rights of the women, youth, minorities and labour. It is injustice and against the spirit democracy,” she said.

Civil society representatives Abdullah Malik and Jaleel highlighted the activities of DDS, stating that the organisation was working for the promotion of democracy in the country.

Sarwar

Separately, PTI provincial organiser Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar on Thursday rapped the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) announcement regarding the phased holding of local government polls in select districts of the Punjab and Sindh.

Assailing the announcement, the former governor called for a biometric identification system to be employed during the polls. He said the polls should be conducted under the supervision of Pakistan Rangers. Sarwar said the elections should be conducted on a divisional basis if the decision to hold them in select areas of the provinces had been taken due to administrative compulsions.

He floated the proposal of holding the polls in three divisions of the Punjab in the first phase. The PTI provincial organiser said the party would never accept the holding of elections in select districts across different divisions. He said such a move would provide the government with greater room to manipulate election results.

Sarwar said the government was in no mood to allow the devolution of power. “The holding of phased local government polls in the Punjab signals the inauguration of malpractice in the elections,” he said. The former governor called for rangers to be deployed at polling stations to ensure that the elections were conducted in a transparent manner.

Wattoo

PPP central Punjab president Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo on Thursday also criticised the ECP announcement to hold local bodies elections in phases.

“In the past, local elections were held on the same day. By holding phased elections, the Punjab government will generate controversy,” he said.

He said local governments were best equipped to deal with local problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2015.