Election Commission rejects request of Sindh govt for postponement of local body elections in Karachi

ISLAMABAD, Oct 04 (SABAH): Election Commission of Pakistan has completed the arrangements for by elections going to be held on 16 of this month in nine constituencies of the National Assembly and three constituencies of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab.

This was informed by Secretary Election Commission to Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja who was chairing an important meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday to review the preparations for upcoming by-elections.

The forum was informed that for the peaceful conduct of the elections, the Election Commission has sent letters to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior for the deployment of Pakistan Army, Rangers and Frontier Corps.

Chief Election Commissioner said that the two ministries should be contacted again to ensure that the deployment of Pak Army, Rangers or Frontier Corps must be done outside all the most sensitive polling stations.

The Election Commission was briefed regarding the second phase of local body elections in Sindh, which are scheduled to be held on 23 of this month.

The Election Commission was told that the provincial government of Sindh has sent a letter regarding non-availability of police force for local body elections in Karachi as they are busy in flood relief activities.

On this, the Election Commission made it clear that it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to hold local elections on the scheduled date.

After carefully reviewing this request of the provincial government of Sindh, the Election Commission rejected the request for postponement of local body elections in Karachi.

The Election Commissioner was further informed that the Election Commission has written to the Federal Government for an amount of 600 million rupees to hold by-polls but these funds have not been received yet.