The decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold the next general election due in 2013 under the existing constituencies has not gone down well with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has decided to approach the commission in this regard.
A top ECP official had told the Public Accounts Committee on Monday that the general election would be held on the basis of the existing constituencies.
“Since the government has failed to complete the national population census, the ECP is bound to keep [the] old constituencies intact for the general elections scheduled to be held in 2013,” ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan said in reply to a question during a meeting of the PAC in Islamabad.
However, Sindh Minister for Law and Prison Muhammad Ayaz Soomro said on Tuesday his party had serious reservations over the ECP decision as “the existing constituencies were made by dictators”.
The PPP would give its recommendations to the ECP soon, he said while taking to the media after handing over appointment letters to 29 probation and parole officers at the Sindh Assembly.
The law minister said the Nazim system had expired. “We are now working to introduce a new local government act 2012, in which four metropolitan corporations for Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana shall run under the administrative control of the mayor and the deputy mayor, while district councils will continue their functions under the administrative control of the chairman, vice chairman and councillors simultaneously.”
A provincial assembly session would be summoned after Eidul Fitr, and a piece of legislation would be introduced for the members of the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC), he announced.
Soomro rejected reports that Sindh was facing a financial crisis, saying that soon an Eid package would be announced for the employees.
He said the PPP government accorded priority to providing jobs to youths on merit, and the strength of the SPSC was being increased to ensure merit. He noted that the 29 probation and parole officers had been recommended by the commission.
The law minister said it was the responsibility of the newly appointed parole and probation officers to provide relief to prisoners. He claimed that there was no danger to the 27 prisons of the province as strict security measures had been taken particularly at four sensitive prisons — Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi central prisons and District Prison Malir.
The ceremony was attended among others by Additional Chief Secretary Home Syed Suhail Akber Shah, Secretary Law Syed Ghulam Nabi Shah, Advocate General Sindh Abul Fatah Malik, Prosecutor General Shahdad Awan, MPAs Haji Anwar Mahar, Ghulam Mujadad Isran and Kalsoom Chandio, Additional Secretary Prison Dr Jamal-uddin-Jalalani and IG Prison Ghulam Qadir Thebo.