KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the schedule for election of mayor and deputy mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, along with other municipalities of Sindh, setting Aug 24 as polling day.

According to a notification issued by the ECP on Thursday, the schedule is for election of mayors and deputy mayors and chairmen and vice chairmen of district councils, municipal committees, town committees, muni­ci­pal corporations and district municipal corporations in Sindh and the only metropolitan corporation in Karachi.

However, elections for Thatta municipal committee and district council and Gambat municipal committee in Khairpur district will be held later.

The ECP said a public notice would be issued by returning officers on Aug 3 and the candidates could file their nomination papers on Aug 5 and 6. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from Aug 8 to 10 and the last date for filing appeals against decisions of the returning officers (acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers) is Aug 12.

Decision on the appeals by the appellate authorities will be taken on Aug 13. Aug 15 will be the last date for withdrawal of candidature. The revised list of candidates, along with symbols, will be published on Aug 16 and polling will be held on Aug 24. Consolidation and declaration of results by the returning officers will be made on Aug 25.

“To ensure that elections to the seats of mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/vice chairman in the district councils, municipal committees, town committees, municipal corporation, district municipal corporations and the metropolitan corporation in Sindh are conducted in accor­dance with the provisions of Article 218(3) of the Consti­tution, the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan directs that: all executive authorities in the federation and in the provinces will neither annou­nce any development project nor use state resources in local government elections calculated to influence the elections in favour of a particular candidate,” the notification said.

“If any person in government service misused his official position in any manner to influence results of the elections, he would be liable to be proceeded against under Section 68 of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. No transfers/postings of the civil servants will be made after the issuance of election schedule of the local government elections without prior approval of the commission till the publication of election results.

“Any holder of public office, who is found to have violated any provision of election laws or the instructions issued by the ECP, will be proceeded against as mandated in law,” it said.

ECP officials said that offi­ces of the commission as well as those of district returning officers and returning officers would remain open on public holidays during the schedule period. The electoral activities would be undertaken during the office hours and these would also be followed on public holidays, they added.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2016

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