PPP hopes for a month’s delay in LG polls

Karachi
With the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dilly-dallying in announcing the final schedule of local government election in Sindh, the Karachi leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is hoping to delay the exercise for at least a month considering the prevailing weather situation.
“With floods raging in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and now entering Sindh with dangerous designs, it would not be feasible to hold local government elections in Punjab and Sindh on schedule,” said Syed Najmi Alam, the president of PPP’s Karachi division while talking to The News on Tuesday.
He said holding the local government election would be of no use when people are displaced from their homes and are in search of shelter. He said that there was no harm in delaying the poll exercise for about a month, or maybe more, keeping in view the flood emergency in Punjab and Sindh.
Keeping this in mind, said the PPP’s Karachi leader, the earlier request of Sindh government should be considered by the ECP for holding local government election in different phases.
“There would be no harm in holding the local bodies’ election in phases by choosing a couple of administration divisions to hold the polls and deputing sufficient staff for the exercise,” he said. “It would limit any sort of mismanagement and maladministration, which had earlier marred the polling exercise in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in May this year.”
Alam said his party had already kicked off preparations for the elections and the management was caling for applications for awarding tickets to candidates.
Under the directives of Supreme Court, September 20, had been fixed as the date for local government election in Punjab and Sindh.