KARACHI: The Sindh government wants to delay the local bodies electoral process by a week and sought the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) nod in this regard through the top official of the provincial administration, said a key member of the provincial cabinet on Friday.

Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah shared with the media the details of a recently-held meeting between the chief secretary and the chief election commissioner in Pakistan in which the request was put forward before the federal institution.

“We are well prepared to hold local bodies polls under the defined schedule,” the minister told reporters after attending a ceremony of ‘Eighth Global Hand Washing Day’ organised by a civil society organisation, HANDS, in collaboration with Unicef.

“However, we have recently approached the Election Commission of Pakistan. The chief secretary in fact has met the chief election commissioner and apprised him about the situation. We only want one more week for the execution of the first phase of the local government electoral process. The provincial government’s request has formally been conveyed to the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

Asked about the reason behind the Sindh government request to delay the first phase of the electoral process by a week, he cited the Muharram-ul-Haram-related engagements of the provincial administration and respect of the first month of the Islamic calendar.

According to the schedule announced by the authorities, the LG polls will be held in three phases across Sindh. In the first phase, the LG elections are scheduled to be held in Sukkur and Larkana divisions on Oct 31. The second phase is scheduled for Nov 19 when the local elections will be held in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Benazirabad divisions. The remaining six districts of Karachi will see LG elections on Dec 3.

Only on Thursday, the Sindh High Court directed the provincial government not to notify till Oct 19 the revised delimitation of certain local government constituencies as proposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

A two-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Faisal Arab, gave the restraining order while hearing a constitutional petition of the provincial government against the ECP for revised delimitation of some local government constituencies. The SHC had on Sept 18 cancelled the delimitation of certain constituencies made by the provincial government for the upcoming LG elections ordering the ECP to revise them within five days. The SHC decision had come on over three dozen petitions challenging the delimitation of certain constituencies across the province, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas.

However, it was not made clear by the authorities that whether the fresh request of the Sindh government to delay the local bodies’ polls process by another week would affect the entire electoral process in the province or not.

“As I said we are ready at our end,” said Mr Shah, “we have only conveyed our thought and request to the Election Commission of Pakistan. We will welcome if it’s approved but let me make it clear that even if it’s not approved, we are ready to hold elections under the schedule plans.”

Published in Dawn, October 17th , 2015

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