PESHAWAR: Local government minister Inayatullah Khan on Thursday said the local body elections might not be possible next month in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if the Election Commission of Pakistan went for new delimitation of local councils.

Briefing media after a cabinet meeting here, the minister said the coalition government in the province was fully prepared to hold local government elections in November, the deadline set by the Supreme Court.

Information minister Mushtaq Ghani and minister for elementary and secondary education Atif Khan were present in the briefing.

Earlier, the cabinet met after a gap of three and a half months.

Minister insists polls not possible next month if there’s new delimitation

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak chaired the meeting.

“The provincial government is ready to conduct polls by the mid-November. This is up to the ECP to announce schedule for the elections,” Inayatullah Khan said, adding that the Supreme Court’s deadline could be met if the commission followed delimitation carried out by the provincial government.

He said the government had handed over election laws, delimitation and other relevant material to the ECP and that the commission had endorsed new delimitation through which tehsil councils were replaced with village councils.

The minister said the province had been divided into 3300 village councils and the entire process was conducted in a transparent manner.

He said the plan to conduct elections through biometric system had been dropped and that the system would be used only in one union council in the province.

Inayatullah Khan said conducting polls through biometric system was not feasible and that it required trained manpower and resources.

He said Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, coalition partners, had hammered out differences over changes in syllabus and recommendations of Jamaat-i-Islami would be accommodated in new textbooks to be developed for schools.

The minister, who belongs to Jamaat-i-Islami, said the changes made to textbooks and contents included in it were unconstitutional, illegal and against the ideology of Pakistan.

He said his party had objections over some materials incorporated in textbooks and meetings between the leaders of the two parties had settled all matters in this regard.

The minister said some personalities like Sikh Ruler Ranjeet Singh were glorified.

“Being coalition partners, Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, have common grounds and both parties want to make Pakistan a welfare state,” he said.

Minister Atif Khan, who is from PTI, endorsed statement.

He said changes in textbooks were made in light of the syllabus approved in 2006 when the curriculum was a federal subject.

On the occasion, information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said the cabinet discussed various issues and approved the bills to be tabled in the next session of the assembly.

The assembly session is likely to be convened after Eidul Azha.

He said the cabinet approved induction of 300 Levies personnel in Buner district and that the provincial government would take up the matter with the federal ministry of state and frontier region.

The minister said the cabinet also granted approval to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Breast-Feeding Act, 2014, and Services Tribunal Amendment Bill, 2014. He said another amendment bill related to maternity was approved to provide relief to pregnant working women.

The minister said the cabinet deferred decision about the lifting of ban on the shifting of machinery from Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate Swabi and removal of windfall and dry trees from forests.

He said the cabinet approved establishment of rest places in Galyat.

Meanwhile, a handout issued here said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak asked the authorities to work hard for removing hurdles to the early holding of local government polls and seeking of guidance from the judiciary in this respect.

He directed the relevant authorities to create public friendly environment and promote tax culture in the society and honestly achieve the revenue targets well in time.

He said the new industrial estates were being set up in different parts of the province.

In the first phase, industrial estate is being established at Kohat-Karak boundary area and land for the project has been already identified followed by another in Malakand.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014