The Federal Interior Ministry on Friday requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the by-elections to several National Assembly seats for another 90 days, citing the uncertain situation in the country. It is impossible.
In a letter to the ECP, the Home Ministry referred to the upcoming ‘True Freedom’ march by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and attempts to overthrow the government.
The ministry told ECP that a political party wants to lay siege to Islamabad from October 12 to October 17.
It was further said that the federal government has deployed a large number of security forces in Islamabad to thwart this attempt.
The Interior Ministry further highlighted that the country’s security forces are already engaged in rehabilitation work in the flood-affected areas. It will not be possible to deploy these forces for the security of the by-elections.
He thus requested the ECP to exercise its constitutional power and postpone the by-elections, and referred to the action taken by the polling body several times in the past to postpone local elections and by-elections.
Earlier, the Sindh government had asked the ECP to postpone the local body elections in the province due to the flood situation.
