LAHORE: Apparently perturbed over the new Local Government Ordinance promulgated by the Punjab government on Feb 3, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has summoned the provincial chief secretary and the local government secretary on Feb 15.

A spokesperson for the ECP says the ordinance almost changed the composition of the local body system in the province rendering ineffective all the measures taken so far by the election authority regarding demarcation of constituencies and relevant tasks.

To discuss the situation, the ECP has summoned the Punjab chief secretary and the local government secretary on Feb 15 to see how the local body polls could be conducted at the earliest under the new law.

Meanwhile, 11 more aspirants for Senate elections from Punjab have collected nomination forms from the ECP offices here. They are Mansoor Sarwar Khan, Faraz Ali, Omar Sarfraz Ahmad Cheema, Sohail Asif Iqbal, Wilson John Gill, Muhammad Azeem-ul-Haq Minhas, Syed Shah Muhammad Shah, Mushahid Ullah Khan, Afnan Ullah Khan, Azam Nazir Tarar and Hassan Masood.

There will be seven general seats and two each seats reserved for women and technocrats from Punjab for the Senate. Polling for them will be held on March 3.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2021