LAHORE: As the Election Commission will notify the delimitation by the end of this month, the PPP has raised hundreds of objections in each district of Punjab against what it says “illegalities and anomalies” in the process in the wards in municipalities and in constituencies of the union councils.

After notifying the delimitation list, the ECP is likely to announce the local body election schedule in Punjab early next month. The polls are scheduled for September 2015.

The ECP will dispose of the objections, the PPP and other opposition parties have raised over the delimitation process, by July 25.

“We have filed hundreds of objections in each district, pinpointing anomalies in the delimitation of the wards in municipalities and in UC constituencies. The delimitation has primarily been done at the best of the PML-N legislators. The assistant commissioners, acting as assistant delimitation officers, have prepared the draft according to the whims and wishes of the PML-N legislators,” PPP South Punjab vice-president Haider Zaman Qureshi, who has been appointed by the party to monitor the delimitation and local polls process, told Dawn here on Tuesday.

“These anomalies include a complete disregard for geographical contiguity, public convenience, social and cultural values, census blocks and patwar circles,” he said, adding that census blocks and patwar circles had been unnecessarily broken and union councils carved out even where boundaries of the chaks and villages were not connected.

Mr Qureshi alleged the Punjab government was planning to change the local government ordinance in a bid to delay the polls indirectly. “We have reports that the Punjab government is going to introduce some controversial amendments to the local body law so that it could be challenged (by any opposition party) and the elections are delayed,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PPP has notified a local government committee to constitute parliamentary boards in each district of the south Punjab. The committee members are: Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood (south Punjab president), Khawaja Rizwan Alam, Haider Zaman Qureshi and Makhdoom Irtiza.

Mr Qureshi has also been tasked with preparing the PPP manifesto for the local body polls.

Published in Dawn ,July 15th, 2015

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