Sindh will not object to army’s deployment during LG polls

KARACHI: Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said the Sindh government will have no objection if the Election Commission decides to deploy the army to hold the upcoming local bodies’ elections in the province.
“It is the job of the Election Commission to hold polls. So wherever it deems fit, the army could be deployed there on the orders of the Election Commission while the Sindh government would have no objections over the move. However, the police and the Rangers would fully discharge their duties during the elections,” said the Sindh local government minister while speaking on Thursday at Meet-the-Press programme of the Karachi Press Club.
“It is our and Pakistan’s army,” he said on the occasion.
“On various occasions, rumours were spread that the Sindh government didn’t want to hold local government elections while this has nothing to do with reality,” he said.
He said that the delay in the filing of the Sindh government’s review petition in the Supreme Court against the orders of the high court regarding delimitations of constituencies had been because of absence from the country of the party’s top counsel, Farooq H Naek.
“Now he has come back to the country while the petition against the (SHC) decision has also been prepared. Consultations have also been made with a senior law expert, Makhdoom Ali Khan,” he said.
“We will approach the Supreme Court in the next few days against the orders of the high court regarding delimitation of constituencies (for local government polls),” he said.
The minister said that the restriction imposed by the Election Commission had been delaying launch and completion of development projects in Karachi.
“We have prepared some schemes which would be implemented after the restriction is lifted,” said Nasir Hussain Shah.
He referred to the new Rs150 billion development package for Karachi announced by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He said some 190 water hydrants had been closed while 2,100 illegal water connections severed to normalise water distribution system in Karachi.
Work on K-IV bulk water supply project for Karachi had been started while a loan would be procured from the World Bank on soft terms for its second phase, he said. The minister said that over 200 “ghost employees” of the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had been fired.
He said that most of those employees had been associated with criminal activities.