ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed elections in 76 local councils of Sindh on Wednesday, the eve of polling day for the second phase of local government polls in Punjab and Sindh.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had lobbed the ball into ECP’s court when it left the matter up to it to decide whether to go ahead with elections in eight districts of Sindh on Thursday.

The Sindh High Court (SHC), in a short order on Nov 17, had directed the ECP to revise the delimitation of constituencies for the local government elections ‘within 24 hours’.

The commission had challenged the SHC verdict before the apex court and the matter was heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali.

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Mohammad Munir Paracha, representing the commission, had told the court earlier in the day that “it is not possible for the ECP to [comply]” with the SHC order, which asked it to complete the delimitation within 24 hours without affecting the election schedule.

Mr Paracha had told the court that ECP had been asked by SHC to revise the delimitation for eight districts: Hyderabad, Badin, Jamshoro, Tharparkar, Tando Allahyar, Mirpur­khas, Shaheed Benazirabad and Naushehro Feroze.

The ECP then held a long meeting to deliberate on the SC order. Briefing reporters after the meeting, ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad announced the decision to postpone elections in 53 union councils, 18 town committees and 5 municipal committees.

No exact information was available at the time of going to press on the constituencies where elections will not take place. The secretary said a notification would shortly be issued on Wednesday night, but no release was made.

Senator Taj Haider, who is also the PPP’s secretary general for Sindh, criticised the ECP for postponing polls on election night. He said there was total confusion and nobody knew where elections were taking place and where the exercise had been postponed.

ECP also postponed elections in various constituencies of Punjab for various reasons. It deferred elections in UC-59 in Laghri for the Attock district council and in Ward No. 12 of the Hazro municipal committee, until further orders.

On the orders of the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench, the ECP also postponed elections in UCs 115 and 116 of Khanewal district council.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2015