Punjab govt seems non-serious in holding LG polls: ECP

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the government of Punjab’s excuse of corona factor, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday said it appeared the provincial government was not serious in holding the local government elections.

To this effect, an important meeting of the Election Commission was held here at the Election Commission Secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja. The meeting was attended by members of Election Commission, secretary ECP, secretary local government Punjab and other officials of the ECP.

The meeting was a continuation of the previous meeting dated December 30, 2020 in which the Punjab government was directed to inform the CECP about the dates of local bodies elections.

Punjab local government secretary clarified that the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has recommended postponing the local bodies elections in the light of the outbreak of COVID-19. However, expressing anger over the position of the Punjab government, the Election Commission said that it seemed that the provincial government was not serious in holding local government elections.

The ECP pointed out that it had already issued a schedule for holding by-elections in eight national and provincial assemblies constituencies across the country with COVID-19 SOPs in mind. Therefore, it emphasised that the excuse of Punjab government for postponing the elections regarding COVID-19 would not be accepted. The Election Commission directed the Punjab government to publish the names of village and neighbourhood councils by January 10, 2021. The local government secretary assured the ECP that the names would be published by January 10. In addition, the secretary sought respite regarding the dates of the local bodies elections, and the Election Commission approved his request and directed that he should inform the commission about the dates of elections under Section 91 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2019 within 15 days. In this regard, the next consultative meeting of the Commission was convened after 15 days.

The Foreign Funding Committee also briefed the commission on the cases. The commission expressed satisfaction over the work of the committee so far but also expressed concern over the delay in the scrutiny process, on which the committee explained that the lawyers of the parties were late in the meetings due to busy schedule in the high courts and hence give less time in this connection. To this, the commission directed the committee and the parties to work three days a week and try to complete the scrutiny as soon as possible.

The meeting was also informed about the gender gap in the voter lists. The meeting was informed that the gender gap was 11.7 percent in 2019, which has come down to 10.7 percent in 2020.

The CEC directed the secretary to formulate an action plan within 10 days to target the districts where the gender gap is high.