The ECP has rejected the Sindh government’s stance on postponing the local body elections. In a meeting held under the Election Commission, Sindh government representative Murtaza Wahab said that there are reservations over the census and until our appeal is decided, the local body elections will be held. The Election Commission, after hearing the views of the Sindh government representatives, has decided to convene a separate meeting to consider the issue.
The term of local government bodies in Sindh expired on August 30, 2020, while the Election Commission is bound to hold elections within 120 days as per the constitution and law. However, the Sindh government has been working tirelessly for a year to hold local body elections, and now PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that as soon as the issue of the census is settled, we are ready to hold local body elections while Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has announced to hold local body elections in the province on party basis but Murad Ali Shah is also not in favor of local body elections till the objections on the census are removed.
The most successful form of government in the world is the system of local government, which seeks to solve most of the people’s problems at their doorsteps by electing representatives at the district, and union council levels, and at the lowest level of authority. With fair distribution, the federal and provincial governments are free from many problems, but in Pakistan, the provincial governments have been postponing the local body elections under various pretexts.
Representatives of the Election Commission and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have agreed to hold local body elections from the end of September to mid-October. He said that the Punjab government would be ready to hold local body elections in November 2021 otherwise local body elections could be held in Punjab in March 2022.
The Election Commission of Sindh (ECP) has completed preparations for the local body elections in Sindh, but the Sindh government has repeatedly used various excuses to stop the polls. He further said that the Sindh government wants to make changes in the local body laws, now the position is being taken that there are reservations over the results of the census. Local body elections in 42 cantonment boards across the country are set for September 9.
The Election Commission is urging Balochistan and Sindh to hold early local body elections and in the current situation, the local body system is in dire need of time. The federation and the provinces should find an acceptable solution to the census and other issues and objections and establish a system of local government by holding local body elections in the country as soon as possible so that the long-standing problems of the people can be solved and the impression can be removed that perhaps the provincial governments are deliberately blocking the holding of local body elections.
