December 10, 2001	Monday	Ramazan 24, 1422

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LAHORE, Dec 9: The Pakistan Election Commission (PEC) has postponed the holding of local council bypolls till April next year, sources in the PEC say.

The bypolls for more than 2,000 general councillors seats had been postponed due to Ramazan and holding of examinations in most of the schools in the early months of 2002, they said.

It had been decided as a policy matter that bypolls for local councils would be held in April each year and instructions in this regard had been sent to the PEC authorities in all the four provinces, they said.

Meanwhile, the PEC has finalized arrangements for preparing new voters’ lists for the forthcoming national and provincial assemblies polls as chief secretaries and other officials concerned of all the four provinces have been directed to cooperate with the PEC in this respect.

As many as 5,000 enumerators are being trained for the verification of voters as a door-to-door drive for the purpose will be launched from Jan 1, 2002.

The PEC staff will give a form to each householder to collect date about the voters living in their respective houses, the sources said, adding the lists prepared by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for the last local council polls had caused innumerable problems, both for the PEC and the general public.

They said the authorities concerned had not yet hinted at any increase in the number of seats for the national and provincial assemblies on the basis of the 1988 census. However, a decision on the beginning of the demarcation of constituencies was expected within a few days, they added.