LG polls to be held in Karachi on Jan 15
Pakistan
LG polls to be held in Karachi on Jan 15
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced January 15 as the date for local government (LG) elections in Karachi.
According to the announced verdict by ECP, the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad will be held on the said date [January 15, 2023], adding that the federal government and the ministry of interior should provide law enforcement personnel, while the Chief Secretary and IG Sindh should appoint security personnel.
Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had also directed the Election Commission to issue the schedule for the LG polls in Karachi and Hyderabad within the time span of two weeks.
SHC had reserved judgment on the petitions of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) related to local government elections in the two cities.
In the judgment, the court ordered that the Election Comission should announce the schedule of the local elections and further directed the Chief Secretary Sindh to ensure the provision of security to ECP.
It may be recalled that the second phase of LG polls in Sindh was to be held on July 24, but the Sindh government excused for not providing security due to the lack of police force pertaining to the flood situation in the country.
In a letter to the provincial election commissioner, the Sindh government has requested to postpone elections for three months as security forces were engaged in relief for the flood-stricken people. It said the province might not be in a position to provide adequate security required for holding the second phase of the local government elections in Karachi division.
According to the letter, while demanding that elections in Karachi division be held in two phases, the Sindh government had further stated that security forces cannot be removed from these affected areas for election duty.
The letter said that in the first phase, elections should be held in the three districts of Karachi, while in the second phase, elections should be held in the four districts.
Afterwards, the date of LG elections was fixed on August 28 and as it did not take place on that date as well, the date was once again set on October 23, but the elections were postponed for the third time.
