ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, announced here on Wednesday that it was ready to hold local government elections in the province on April 30, putting the ball in the court of Election Commission of Pakistan to go ahead with the required arrangements.

The decision was taken at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the PTI’s core committee.

The PTI said it had asked the ECP and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to allow the KP government to hold the LG elections through biometric system by using electronic voting machines, but they had shown no interest in the request.

“The core committee has expressed its dismay over the lack of response on part of the ECP and Nadra,” said a press release issued after the meeting. The committee formally asked the ECP to expedite the election process because the KP government had completed delimitation of constituencies, it added.

The committee also asked the federal government to complete the procedure for allowing overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes. The party directed its members in the National Assembly to introduce a bill for amendments to the Constitution.

After the PTI’s announcement, the focus will now be on Punjab and Sindh as they have so far refused to hold LG elections on one pretext or the other. Balochistan held the elections on Dec 7 last year.

The Supreme Court had directed the ECP to announce by Nov 15 election schedules for the remaining three provinces.

The KP government’s announcement will put extra pressure on its counterparts in Punjab and Sindh.

However, the ECP did not agree with the PTI demand.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that the kind of election the PTI had planned was not possible within one month. “They want biometric-based elections, but the situation on ground is that 1.2 million voters in KP still possess old national identity cards. To procure electronic machines, the government needs time to invite tenders and then print ballot papers.”

The PTI leadership, the official added, was playing politics with the date; otherwise they knew it was unrealistic at the moment. In reply to a question, the official said LG elections were most likely to be held in the three provinces together, early or late next year.

In response to allegations that a number of PTI lawmakers were involved in corrupt practices, the core committee decided that no party member would be allowed to do any business with the KP government. It urged the provincial government to urgently pass the ‘conflict of interest law’ aimed at preventing members of the government and other party office-bearers from engaging in business ventures in the public sector. The committee reiterated that no PTI legislator would accept any official US invitation unless the American government formally apologised for humiliation meted out by it to Pakistani leaders.

Last week, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid was offloaded from a Toronto-bound flight which was to fly over the US. And last year, PTI chairman Imran Khan was made to wait for five hours at the Toronto airport before boarding a US flight.

In the end, the party praised its workers for standing firm on the anti-drone issue which, it claimed, had compelled the Obama administration to stop drone attacks.