The provincial cabinet on Friday once again decided to convince the electoral bodies to postpone the second phase of local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions.
This move has come a few days before the Supreme Poll Body is scheduled to hold a hearing on the conduct of local body elections in the province.
In a letter, the Sindh Local Government Department informed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about the decision of the provincial cabinet to postpone the local elections for another three months.
However, the Sindh Chief Secretary clarified that “municipal elections will be conducted as per the directives of the ECP.”
Opposition Concerns
Opposition parties in Sindh, including Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), strongly opposed the decision and criticized the government’s delaying tactics.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem said that the Sindh government is afraid of holding local elections.
PTI leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi said that ‘if the provincial government can send the Sindh police to the federal capital, then it can also call the police from other provinces to conduct local elections’.
Just a day earlier, the Sindh High Court on Thursday reprimanded the ECP for delaying tactics, asking what the Sindh Police had done to save the flood-affected people.
