ISLAMABAD: A day after postponing local government elections in nine districts of Hyderabad division, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday postponed local government (LG) polls in seven districts of Karachi division, thus putting on hold the entire second phase of the electoral exercise for grassroots tier of democracy scheduled for Aug 28.

The decision was taken at an ECP meeting which was convened to review weather conditions, non-availability of security personnel for electoral exercise because of their deployment in flood-hit areas to provide relief to the masses and issues rela­ted to logistics. The meeting was presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

The new date for the LG polls will now be announced once the weather conditions improved, the ECP announced in a statement issued after the meeting.

The ECP statement said that reports of the chief secretary, Sindh IG, provincial election commissioner, wea­ther conditions, non-availability of members of law-enforcement agencies for electoral exercise, provision of logistics, public interest and convenience of voters had been kept in mind by the ECP while taking the decision to put off the proposed polls in Karachi division.

The secretary of election commission briefed the meeting about the conduct of the second phase of local government elections in Sindh.

Referring to the report of the Meteorological Depart­ment, the secretary of election commission of Pakistan Umar Hameed Khan said that heavy rains had been predicted in Karachi from Aug 24 to Aug 26, 2022, and there were chances of rains also on Aug 27 and Aug 28, the polling day.

He said the chief secretary and IG of Sindh had informed the ECP in writing that all the administration, police personnel and members of law-enforcement agencies were now engaged in flood relief operations in affected areas of Sindh.

The meeting was further informed that there was also a need to maintain law and order during relief operations in flood-hit areas and because of this situation, the movement of police was not possible.

In his report, the IG of Sindh said that in the current flood situation, additional police force from interior of Sindh could no longer be deployed in Karachi for LG elections, which was very important for the conduct of peaceful elections in the megacity.

He said that other law-enforcement agencies, including Rangers, were supposed to perform duties in the most-sensitive polling stations along with police, and the Pakistan Army was supposed to provide the third tier of support, but they were now engaged in flood relief operations and, therefore, it would not be possible for the Rangers and the Pakistan Army to join hands with police during the LG polls.

The provincial election commissioner told the meeting that there would be other logistic issues besides transporting polling material and polling staff, especially the women polling staff.

He said there would also be serious problems in transporting 63,000 polling staff to 4900 polling stations for Karachi elections, and requested that Karachi division LG polls be postponed for now.

The polling in the megacity was to be held on August 28 (Sunday) in districts East, West, South, Central, Korangi, Keamari and Malir of Karachi division and Hyderabad, Dadu, Jamshoro, Matiari, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Badin, Sujawal and Thatta districts of Hyderabad division — in the second phase of the LG polls.

The second phase of the local government elections was originally scheduled to be held on July 24, but on July 20 the polls had been put off till Aug 28 because of the possibility of rains and bad weather.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2022