LAHORE, Oct 30: Tehreek-i-Insaf Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said to hold local body elections on the dates given by the Punjab and Sindh governments is impossible and added it is actually part of a “rigging plan”.

At a news conference here on Wednesday, Mr Qureshi said the masses and the PTI were serious about local body elections but the PML-N wanted “selection” instead of election.

Mr Qureshi said the government’s printing press was busy printing currency notes and Nadra also needed to check voters’ lists. He alleged union councils’ delimitation was being done to suit PML-N government’s requirements.

He said the PTI would neither accept privately printed ballot papers nor the new delimitation of the UCs.

“The PTI accepted general election results with a heavy heart but will not stay silent over rigging in the local elections. The PTI will hold protests and stage sit-ins on every road and intersection (in case of rigging),” Mr Qureshi said.

He said the local body bills presented in Punjab and Sindh assemblies were against the spirit of democracy as they were a slightly modified form of 1979 and 2002 local government ordinances. Both the bills had exposed the mindset of the two provincial governments, who under Supreme Court’s pressure agreed to hold the elections but were trying to retain power through manipulation of the bills’ clauses, he added.

He said the local body elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been delayed because the PTI government was bringing in a transparent system to hold the exercise. He said the KP bill draft had been sent to legislative committee which would soon approve it.

PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry said the party would hold a mass protest demonstration against price-hike in Lahore and Multan on Friday (tomorrow).