ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday vowed to complete the process of local government (LG) elections in the country by the end of February next year.

The commission at a meeting presided over by acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Nasirul Mulk decided to hold the elections in Sindh and Punjab on Jan 18 and 30, respectively, in line with a commitment given to the Supreme Court.

The election schedule for the two provinces will be announced on Dec 7.

Previously, the schedule was to be announced on Nov 29. However, it was delayed when both governments failed to provide the ECP updated LG laws, rules and notifications of delimitations of constituencies by Nov 28, the deadline set by the commission for the purpose.

The Sindh government did send the three documents on Nov 29 the same were found to be carrying lacunae.

The ECP has now written to the two governments, asking them to submit the three documents by Dec 6 – a day before the planned announcement of the schedule.

“The two provinces have been told that the schedule will be issued on Dec 7. If a delay is caused because of laxity of a provincial government, that government will be responsible for it,” ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan told reporters after the meeting.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had been asked to provide the three prerequisites by Jan 1.

The polls in Balochistan will be held on Dec 7.

Letters have been sent to the defence and interior ministries about elections in cantonments and the Federal Capital Territory. Schedule for these areas will be issued in the first or second week of January, he said, adding the commission wants to complete the exercise across the country by Feb 28.

The secretary said the KP government had also been told to extend its local government law to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.

After changes in the LG system made by Sindh, 30 million ballot papers would be needed instead of 110m and the required number of inkpads also came down from 1m to 570,000, he said.

The decision to procure non-magnetised ink will enhance life of the ink and thus only 850,000 inkpads will be required for Punjab instead of 1.5m.

He said nine new political parties had applied for registration and eight of them had been enlisted. With this, the number of parties registered with the ECP has risen to 260.