The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday announced that it will conduct the local government elections in Sindh in two phases starting in May.

The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, according to a press statement issued by the electoral watchdog.

The CEC was informed that final list of delimitations in Sindh will be released on March 24. The ECP had also summoned chief secretary Sindh for the meeting in order to decide about election dates.

The senior bureaucrat suggested that the ECP should hold local government elections in two phases.

After deliberations, the ECP decided that the first phase of the elections will be conducted in the last week of May.

The ECP chief directed the chief secretary to provide details of districts to be covered during the first phase so that necessary steps could be taken for preparations of the polls.

Dawn had spoken to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah last month wherein he shared the expected schedule of the polls. He had said "the local government elections are to be held in two phases. So I think the first phase can be held in the third week of May and then the second one in the first week of June.”

The Sindh cabinet earlier this week approved further amendments to the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Bill, making next Karachi mayor a member of the governing bodies of city development authorities and the chairman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

The amendments came after the PPP government promised to take up the concerns of the opposition parties following a 29-day protest sit-in by Jamaat-i-Islami outside the Sindh Assembly. The Pak Sarzameen Party also took to streets and staged a sit-in for a week near Fawara Chowk.