KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet met briefly on Thursday but adjourned the meeting as the senior officers required to brief the members on security arrangements for the Jan 15 local government elections in the city and flour crisis across the province were not fully prepared for their presentations.
Informed sources told Dawn that the meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, lasted only a few minutes.
They said that the chief minister asked them to prepare their respective presentations besides a detailed briefing on the law and order, especially street crimes in the city, and present them before the cabinet which would meet at 11am on Friday (today).
The sources said that the chief minister asked the IGP to give a detail briefing on the deployment of police during the polls.
Commissioner reviews arrangements
The city administration, however, reviewed the preparation and arrangements for the second phase of the local government elections, including installation of CCTV cameras at ‘highly sensitive’ polling station.
Chaired by Karachi Commissioner Iqbal Memon, the meeting decided that the code of the conduct for polling issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan would be implemented effectively.
The deputy commissioners of all seven districts of the city, who are also the District Returning Officers (DROs), briefed the commissioner about progress of work for LG elections which are to be held on Jan 15.
The commissioner directed the DCs to comply with the guidelines issued by the ECP.
The commissioner was informed that almost 4,990 polling stations had been established in all seven districts of the city.
As many as 10,629 candidates will be contesting on the seats of UC chairmen and vice chairmen as well as ward councilors.
The city has been divided in 25 towns, 246 UCs and 984 wards. Every voter will cast the vote on two seats of UC chairman and vice chairman and one seat of ward councilor.
The election would be held on 472 seats of chairmen and vice chairmen of 236 UCs. As many as 4,190 candidates are in the run for the seats of UC chairmen and vice chairmen, while 6,439 candidates will contest on 965 seats of ward councilors.
Over 18,600 booths have been established in 4,990 polling stations where over 47,000 staffers, including 5,000 presiding officers, 18,629 assistant presiding officers and as many polling officers and 5,000 naib qasids, would be deployed on the polling day.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023
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