RAWALPINDI: The ruling party has started preparing for elections on reserved seats in local bodies and for mayors, though a schedule for the elections is yet to be announced.

The local government elections in Punjab were held on December 5 last year and the elected chairmen and councillors took oath to their offices in mid January. Elections for mayors and on reserved seats for women, labour, peasants, minorities and youth in local bodies were delayed for various reasons when they were to be completed by February 2016.

Earlier this year, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced a schedule for holding elections on reserved seats on February 8 and said that polls for mayor and district council chairman were to follow.

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However, the provincial government made amendments to the Punjab Local Government Act through an ordinance, which was challenged in the Lahore High Court on February 4 and led to ECP postponing the elections.

And now, though a decision on the case is pending, the ruling party has asked its local leaders to prepare themselves for the elections on reserved seats to be held in May, according to former PML-N MNA Malik Shakil Awan.

“It is clear now that the formation of the local government will be completed by the end of June. After announcing the new budget, the government will also allocate money for uplift schemes in all union councils and all the work will be done under the supervision of the UC chairman and mayor,” he said.

The party wanted to start preparing early because it wanted the newly formed local government to start working from the first week of July, said a senior PML-N leader.

Elections on reserved seats and those for mayor, deputy mayors, chairmen of district councils and vice chairmen will take a month and after being sworn in, the elected representatives will start looking after the local government, he said.

He added that because of the delay in the formation of local governments, local leaders were being criticised for not doing any public work, when they did not have authority for doing so.

“Opposition parties might also use people’s resentment in their favour,” the party leader said.

The government also wanted to divert the attention it was getting after the allegations in the Panama Papers by getting politicians and citizens busy in elections, he added, even though PPP and PTI are not in the position for their candidates to run for mayors and council chairmen.

PML-N secured a two-thirds majority in the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation, district councils and municipal committees in five tehsils of the Rawalpindi district. But the party is divided in groups and all groups want to get their members in the top positions, the politician said.

Meanwhile, PPP and PTI will be contesting for securing positions of opposition leaders in corporations and councils and for them, the elections on reserved seats are important as victories will raise their numbers in the house.

District Election Commissioner Nadeem Zubair told Dawn that ECP has not yet announced a schedule. He said the commission was ready for the announcement, which will be made as soon as a decision on the amendments to the local government Act arrives.

There is however, no deadline for the announcement and ECP will make the decision according to the law. He said schedules for the whole province will be announced and not just for a few districts.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2016