LAHORE: Opposition parties – PPP, PTI and PML-Q – believe the PML-N Punjab government may not succeed this time to get the local body elections delayed further because of the pressure of the apex court.

The ECP on Tuesday announced holding of local body elections in Punjab on Sept 20 on the ‘strict’ order of the Supreme Court.

The Shahbaz government had managed to postpone the local body elections last year on one reason or another, causing financial loss to the aspirants who had invested heavily on their publicity campaign.

Know more: ECP ‘ready’ for LG polls in Punjab, Sindh on Sept 20

During his previous tenure (2008-13), the Shahbaz government only kept making promises that it would hold the local body polls which in reality was not its priority. The last local body elections were held in Punjab in 2005.

“This time the PML-N government will not succeed in postponing the election schedule announced by the ECP because the Supreme Court does not seem to be ready to listen further excuses in this respect,” Punjab PML-Q General Secretary Chaudhry Zaheeruddin told Dawn.

He requested the apex court to take suo motu notice of the legislation the Punjab government had done to take away all the powers from the local body representatives and hand over to bureaucracy and the chief minister. “In anticipation of the local body polls, the Punjab government had already smartly done legislation to deprive the local representatives of all kinds of powers to run the affairs of the government. The PML-N through legislation has killed the spirit of the devolution of power,” Mr Zaheeruddin said, adding the ECP would have to take notice in coming days that the Punjab government should not involve revenue officials and patwaris in delimitation process ahead of the polls in September.

“There will be a big question mark on transparency of the elections if the ECP fails to eliminate the role of the Punjab government in delimitation process and other maneuvering,” he said.

PTI leader Mahmoodur Rashid who is an opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly said the PML-N had already managed to put off the local body elections twice in the past but this time it would fail if it tried. “We request the ECP to make the delimitation process fair and acceptable to all parties,” he said and warned the PML-N government the PTI would be o0n roads if it tried to create hurdles in the election process. “This time we will not let the PML-N to delay the local body polls,” he promised.

Mr Rashid said the PTI had called the meeting of its local body committee on March 12 regarding preparation for the election. “Our district committees will recommend the names of candidates to the leadership,” he said.

PPP senior vice-president advocate Haider Zaman Qureshi said under a high court judgement delimitation was the responsibility of the ECP and the government could not interfere in it. “We welcome the apex court’s decision and hope the Punjab government would not hoodwink it now. However, the government will try to take the matter to the Council of Common Interests in order to delay the polls,” Mr Qureshi said.

Punjab PPP Information Secretary Raja Amer said the PML-N would not dare to create hurdles in the September elections as it knew the popularity graph of the PTI had gone down. “The PML-N is now comfortable with the local body polls after it has driven out the spirit of the local body,” Mr Amer said, adding the PPP was ready to give surprises to both the PML-N and PTI in the local polls.

Published in Dawn March 11th , 2015

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