Nobody should be under political pressure for LB polls: CEC

KARACHI: The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, said on Wednesday that governments come and go but institutions remain. He said no institution needs to be under political pressure during the local bodies elections. He said people have confidence in institutions.
He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold the local government elections in a free, fair and transparent manner. The CEC chaired a high-level meeting of the commission on the local government polls at a local hotel in Karachi. Secretary ECP Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad, Secretary Local Government Sindh, IG Sindh Police Ghulam Haider Jamali, Rangers officials, DIGs and commissioners of districts attended the meeting.
Earlier, the CEC visited the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum and offered Fateha and laid a floral wreath. Speaking to the media on the occasion, he said the people and political parties should support the Election Commission so that the LB elections were transparent. He said had the Quaid-e-Azam remained alive for some years, the administrative and political institutions would have been developed and there would have been no irregularities that exist today.
Moreover, the ECP changed the polling date for the third phase of the upcoming local government elections in Punjab and Sindh. Now the election will be held on December 5 instead of 3.This was stated by a spokesman of the ECP, Khursheed Alam, in Islamabad. The polling date was changed on the application of Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafaria (TNFJ), pointing out that the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) would be observed on December 3, he added.
However, the other schedule including date of filing of nomination papers would remain the same, the spokesman added.The ECP officials were informed that thousands of voters would be deprived of their right to vote if the date was not changed.The ECP will hold the LG elections in 12 districts of the Punjab and six districts of Karachi Division in the third phase.