LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has snubbed the Punjab government for suggesting the areas to hold the local polls in the province in the first phase.

Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja told the Punjab local government secretary at a meeting held at the Election Commission on Tuesday that the ECP would decide which districts to be selected for holding local polls in the first phase.

The CEC also made it clear that the election schedule would be issued only after demarcation of constituencies and registration of electoral groups as per law. He told the secretary that the Commission would not tolerate any intervention in the election process and that any violation of the law would warrant a strict action.

The secretary had said that the provincial government wished to hold the polls in two phases and suggested that DG Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur and Gujranwala divisions should be included in the first phase that should be held in the second half of May 2022.

Mr Raja directed that the government should focus on the earliest passage of the Local Government Ordinance 2019 from the provincial assembly and immediate provision of Conduct of Election Rules to the ECP.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022