LAHORE: Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in a meeting on Saturday with the Punjab Assembly Speaker and provincial ministers comprehensively reviewed the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification about the delimitation of union councils in the province and rejected it “for being lopsided”.

The chief minister said a legal and constitutional course of action would be adopted to contest the ECP’s notification.

The meeting was of the view that the ECP’s delimitation notification did not fulfil legal requirements.

The chief minister said the one-sided notification was an attempt to bulldoze public opinion. He said local people and administration were not taken on board with regard to consultations and decisions leading to the delimitation of union councils.

Nefarious attempt to benefit a political party: Parvez

Mr Elahi said the local government institutions were the nurseries of democracy and added that the problems of the masses could only be resolved at their doorsteps through a strong democratic government.

“If the delimitation takes place according to the ECP’s one-sided notification, strong local governments will remain a distant dream in the province,” the chief minister said. According to an official announcement, the chief minister said “prima facie this one-sided notification is based on malafide intentions and a nefarious attempt to benefit a special political party. We hold strong reservations regarding this one-sided notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

The meeting was also attended by Punjab Assembly Speaker Muhammad Sabtain Khan, provincial ministers Man Aslam Iqbal, Raja Basharat, Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed and MNA Brigadier retired Ijaz Shah.

ECP: Deter­mined to hold local government polls in Punjab, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a schedule for the delimitation of constituencies for the electoral exercise slated to be held in the last week of April 2023.

This would be the third time in recent days that the ECP would conduct the delimitation of the constituencies for local government (LG) elections in Punjab. Meanwhile, senior lawyer Faisal Chaudhry and former PA speaker Afzal Sahi met Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi at the CM Office and discussed ongoing progress on development projects in Jhelum and Faisalabad.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2023