ISLAMABAD: As the Sindh government continued to drag its feet on holding local bodies elections in Karachi, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday decided to take up the issue on November 9.

This was decided in a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. The meeting was also attended by ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan, Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Hussain and other members of the commission.

The meeting was briefed over the report submitted by the Sindh government, outlining the reasons to not hold the polls.

In its written response, the provincial government has stated the police force was currently insufficient to safely hold the elections in the metropolis and it was impossible to bring in personnel from other districts of Sindh.

It was also pointed out that additional police personnel have been sent to Islamabad at the interior ministry’s request.

The responsibilities of the police force have increased due to ongoing rehabilitation of flood victims, vaccination drive against Covid-19 and upcoming defence exhibition ‘Ideas’ in Karachi, the report said.

Citing these reasons, the provincial government stated that ensuring peaceful local government elections in Karachi was “impossible”.

However, the ECP officials during the meeting also considered the request of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) to hold elections at the earliest and decided to fix the case for hearing at the commission on November 9.

The commission has also decided to issue notices to Sindh’s home secretary, chief secretary and inspector general.

Furthermore, major parties, including JI, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan Peoples Party, and MQM-Pakistan will also be invited to state their position.

Earlier, the ECP had, on October, 18 put off local government elections in Karachi indefinitely. The polls were scheduled to take place on Oct 23.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2022