LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will not be the only beneficiary if the Supreme Court accepts the election authority’s plea for delay in local body polls. Some political parties have also been struggling to meet various procedural deadlines.

The apex court is taking up the ECP petition on Monday (today).

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the main opposition parliamentary party in Punjab, and former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q have so far neither issued party tickets to their respective nominees nor provided the ECP list(s) of the persons authorised to issue the tickets.

Under the schedule, final lists of candidates along with their allotted symbols were to be published on Jan 13 (today). The ECP, however, extended the date by three days in the hope that the apex court during hearing of the case will provide it relief by extending the polling day from Jan 30 to March 13.

“So far just six parties have submitted lists along with signatures of their respective officials authorised for issuing tickets and the same have been forwarded to returning officers and assistant returning officers for necessary action accordingly,” a senior official of the ECP told Dawn.

These parties included Pakistan People’s Party, Jamaat-i-Islami, JUI-F, PML-F, National Party and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Movement.

The PPP has authorised four persons – Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo, General-Secretary Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Amer Dogar. The short list suggests that the party is not expecting huge number of aspirants for its tickets. It has already abolished the ticket (processing) fees.

The Jamaat-i-Islami has authorised its district president to issue tickets.

The PTI admits its failure in catching up with the schedule. Punjab Information Secretary Andleeb Abbas says the party will be deciding its nominees between Jan 20 and 30. It means that the party is also sure that the polls will be postponed.

Q-League General-Secretary Chaudhry Zaheer claims they have forwarded the authorised officials’ list to the ECP. He could not explain why the document did not reach its destination – provincial offices of the Election Commission – till Sunday evening.

In a candid talk, he admits that parties are not much aware about what to do in the present uncertainty shrouding the local polls.