PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Kamran Bangash on Monday said the provincial government had challenged in the Supreme Court the decision of the Peshawar High Court for holding village and neighbourhood councils elections on party basis.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the provincial government was of the opinion that the verdict of the high court was not clear and its implementation would require amendments in the Local Government Act that would make timely holding of the local body elections difficult.

However, he said if the apex court also upheld the decision of the high court, then the elections would be held on the scheduled date of December 19.

Mr Bangash said the provincial government had adopted a stance in the Supreme Court that the decision was not clear as to how the electoral process for the general councillors of the village and neighbourhood councils would be held in the new scenario.

He said each political party would issue three tickets, and in such a case three candidates of the same party would contest against each other.

He said the election commission had also agreed with their stance.

He said in the local body polls of 2015 elections for the village and neighbourhood councils were also held on non-party basis and that model had proved successful.

He said beside amendments in the Local Government Act, the implementation of the decision of the high court would also require framing of new rules and the completion of that process would take more time.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2021