PPP slams decision to postpone election on LB reserved seats

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Friday took a strong exception to the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone elections on reserved seats with regard to recently held local bodies (LB) elections in Sindh province, saying that it has been once again proved that the ECP not only lacks the required capacity to perform but is also frightened of certain political parties.

While criticising the decision, PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Saeed Ghani said the ECP should hold the elections as per the law as it is an autonomous constitutional institution. “The ECP is bent upon committing violations of the Constitution and the existing law of the country,” he said.

He asserted that it is constitutional obligation of the ECP to conduct the elections on reserve seats in Sindh on party basis as it is also unavoidable in light of orders of the country’s apex court. “There is no other way of conducting the elections on reserved seats except through, ‘shows of hands’,” he added.

Senator Saeed Ghani also recalled a typical political scenario under which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had incessantly been levelling ‘baseless allegations’ on the Sindh government and the PPP of using provincial authority and resources to lure the voters.

Following the allegations, he said the Sindh government, to avoid any controversy, decided to amend the law through the Sindh Assembly. “The MQM and the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional had challenged that amendment in the Sindh High Court, and this means that the amended law was a candid manifestation of the reality about the parties involved in changing the voters’ mood in the elections,” he added.

He said that it is on record that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl had jointly written to the ECP for holding the elections on reserved seats through the show of hands procedure.

Senator Ghani said the ECP in absolute absence of any stay order from any court had on its own postponed the elections on reserved seats, which again proved that the commission is partisan. Ghani said it is now clear that the present ECP does not have the capacity for holding any elections without going into controversies.