ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: The Supreme Court was not satisfied with an explanation by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday that announcement of a date for local government elections was possible only after the provincial governments provided it with tools to make arrangements for the polls.

The ECP’s Additional Secretary, Sher Afgan, explained the tools needed were: notifications about the local government laws, election rules and delimitation of union councils and wards by the provinces.

“What we can say is that the ECP is not interested in holding the elections,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who heads a three-judge bench seized with a case relating to LG elections.

The court had directed the provincial governments to inform it on Monday about the steps they were taking to enforce constitutional provisions of holding the elections without delay. The chief justice observed that the holding of elections on time would benefit the poor and cited a World Bank report that 60 per cent of the people in Pakistan were living below the poverty line. The provinces should hold the polls without any loss of time.

Sher Afgan informed the court that a three-day meeting of the ECP’s special committee would be held on Tuesday. It will be presided over by acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani. Local government secretaries, managing directors of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan and the Security Printing Corporation, Nadra chairman and representatives of the Census Organisation are expected to attend the meeting.

The Advocate General of Sindh, Khalid Javed, assured the court that the delimitation process in the province would be completed by Nov 4 and the ECP would be informed about it. Referring to a special meeting presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Sunday, he said the provincial government was committed to holding the LG elections by Dec 7.

The law relating to elections had already been passed by the Sindh Assembly in August, he said, adding that under the guidance of the Supreme Court the province was almost at the end of the tunnel.

The chief justice praised the Sindh chief minister’s statement that LG elections would be held in time.

Khalid Javed said the meeting had expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court because of which a great institution will come into existence.

The Additional Advocate General of Punjab, Haneef Khatana, informed the court that legislation regarding the elections had been completed and “we are in the process of hearing complaints before finalising delimitation of the wards and union councils”.

But the court observed that the Punjab government could issue a notification about delimitation without waiting for an outcome of the hearing of complaints.

The Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Abdul Latif Yousufzai, informed the court that an amended law had been tabled in the provincial assembly and it would be adopted this week. He said delimitation had been delayed because provincial law minister Israrullah Gundapur, who was overseeing the entire process, was killed in a suicide attack. But delimitation has now been completed.

The court observed that an ordinance could still be issued if the provincial government was interested in pursuing the matter.

The hearing was adjourned to Wednesday.