ISLAMABAD: Criticising the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for its last minute decision to postpone polling in 76 local councils in Sindh, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah said on Thursday that the move had again exposed inefficiency of the ECP.

Talking to reporters at his Parliament House chamber, he reiterated his demand for resignation of ECP members and, for the first time, also criticised the chief election commissioner, saying that he was also not playing his due role.

Also read: Sindh CM criticises poll postponement

“I fail to understand why ECP members are not resigning after so much criticism of them,” he said while reacting to the ECP’s decision to postpone poling in 76 local councils of Sindh on the directives of the Supreme Court (SC) and the Sindh High Court (SHC).

After the announcement of election schedule, the ECP should not have implemented the court’s orders, Mr Shah said and questioned the timing of the SHC’s order to revise the delimitation of constituencies for LB polls in eight districts of the province.

The PPP leader alleged that the ECP had changed the venue of 22 polling stations in Badin after Wednesday midnight, which caused hardships to voters.

The ECP on Wednesday night had issued a notification postponing election for 76 union councils, town committees and municipal committees in the districts of Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro, Badin, Naushehro Feroze, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sanghar.

A fresh election schedule would be issued after completion of delimitation process in the councils after demarcation of urban and rural areas by the provincial government in the light of the orders of the SHC and the SC, the notification said.

Meanwhile, the ECP has rejected allegations and criticism regarding its decision to postpone the polling.

“The allegations and criticism are not based on facts and (the ECP decision) has been wrongly interpreted,” it said in a statement, adding that the decision to postpone the polling had been made in compliance with the court orders. The statement quoted the operative paragraphs of the orders of the SHC and the SC in support of the commission’s decision to postpone the polling.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2015