ECP to give deadline to provinces to hold local bodies' elections: sources

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to give deadlines to the provincial governments to hold local bodies elections using its constitutional and legal authority, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

The sources having privy to the matter said that the decision from the election commission came in the backdrop of lack of cooperation from the provincial governments with respect to holding local bodies’ elections.

“The ECP would give a deadline to the provinces to hold elections after provincial governments are not cooperating with it on the matter,” they said adding that the commission had already heard arguments from Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces in various meetings it had held in this regard.

In May this year, Sindh government has conveyed to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that it could not hold local government elections in the province during 2021 owing to its reservations on population census.

According to sources, the local bodies’ polls could not be held in the country this year after the provincial government conveyed to the ECP that it could not hold the elections in 2021.

“We have reservations on population census and therefore could not hold the polls,” the sources in the Sindh government said adding that the government would challenge the CCI decision to accept census figures.

They said that the reservations on holding local government elections in the province during the ongoing year were conveyed by the provincial authorities during a previous meeting of the election body.