ISLAMABAD: As per a report , the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is considering holding local government elections in the federal capital on January 10.
As per sources, the long-delayed LG elections’ final date would be announced following discussions with Chief Elections Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and other ECP members.
Voting papers have been sent to the offices of the returning officers, which has accelerated the top electoral body’s pace of election preparations. The polls were initially slated for December 31.
As per sources, a major challenge in the polls was the lack of workers for the voting process because employees of the education departments were on winter holiday.
Recall that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had instructed the ECP to hold the LG elections on December 31 and that the ECP had used a staffing shortfall as a justification for failing to do so on time.
The federal capital and the ECP filed an intra-court appeal against the decision on Saturday after the ECP disobeyed the IHC’s single-bench direction to hold the polls on time.
After the ECP indicated that the LG elections will be delayed due to the government’s plan to increase the number of union councils (UCs) in the federal capital, IHC Justice Arabab Muhammad Tahir made the order last week.
