ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Election Commission (ECP) cancelled on Wednesday the schedule for local government elections in Punjab and Sindh and convened a meeting on Nov 19 to prepare a plan for holding the polls in January.

The decision was taken hours after the Supreme Court accepted the commission’s plea for postponement of the polls on account of lack of preparation by the provinces and other problems.

Under the schedule which now stands cancelled the polls in Sindh and Punjab were to be held on Nov 27 and Dec 7. Under the new plan the elections will now be held on Jan 18 and Jan 30 next year.

According to sources, a breakthrough on the issue was made in a meeting between Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani held on Tuesday night. Justice Jillani is reported to have convinced the chief justice that for a variety of reasons it was not possible to observe the schedule announced by the commission on the court’s directives.

The ECP was asked to write a letter proposing new dates not too far from the original schedule, the sources said.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to convert the ECP letter into a petition the commission met with the acting CEC in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said the court’s earlier decision was based on the dates announced by the provinces. He said schedules for the polls in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan had been announced but two provinces were not ready for the exercise.

Updating of local government laws and rules as well as delimitation could not be completed in Sindh and Punjab and the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP), Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had expressed their inability to print ballot papers, provide magnetised ink and reconcile the electoral rolls with the delimitation of union councils conducted on the basis of the 1998 census, he said. The ECP official said the candidates who had filed nomination papers in Sindh and Punjab would have to do so afresh because new nomination forms would be printed. But they will not have to deposit the nomination fees again.

Mr Khan said the polls in Punjab were now to be held on party basis.

He said top officials of the federal and provincial governments and the chiefs of the PCP, PCSIR and Nadra would attend the Nov 19 meeting.

He termed a resolution adopted by the National Assembly on the matter as reflection of the will of the people. He said the momentum for the polls would be carried on.