Islamabad: Opposition PTI’s Asad Umar, who represents Islamabad’s urban areas in the National Assembly, on Monday criticised the government for opting not to declare the polling day for local body elections in the city a public holiday and said the decision had deprived many government employees of their right to vote. First the government had announced its offices in the capital city would remain open on the election day, but later, it had second thoughts and slashed the working hours at its offices from 5 p.m. to 2 p.m. for the day to facilitate employees to cast their votes. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had fixed the timing of the electoral exercise from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. nonstop. MNA Asad Umar told reporters here that there must be a public holiday on the polling day in Islamabad. He said the polling time must be increased as a large number of voters were government employees, who would be free after 2 p.m., who were likely to be unable to cast their votes due to shortage of time. The lawmaker also said the ECP should better have held local body elections on Sunday to facilitate voters but it appeared to be asleep due to ‘some important work’.
