Sindh delayed Karachi, Hyderabad LG polls again
Memon asserts that issues raised by the MQM-P will be addressed by the government.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led provincial government in Sindh ordered the postponement of local body (LB) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad and cancelled the notification about additional constituencies following a late-night meeting of the Sindh cabinet.
Sharjeel Inam Memon, the Sindh Information Minister, told reporters in the early hours of Friday in Karachi that the remaining districts in Sindh will hold local elections on January 15 as scheduled.
The minister stated that although the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) did have concerns regarding delimitations, the decision was made after the Sindh cabinet meeting and was not based on “protest or threat of anyone.”
As an ally of the ruling PPP, Memon insisted that the MQM-issues P’s will be addressed at the national level. Furthermore, he mentioned the province’s security issues.
Later, the Sindh government also requested in a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a copy of which is on file with The Express Tribune, that the LB elections in Dadu district be postponed.
According to the letter, a sizable portion of the district is still under water as a result of the post-flood situation.
The letter stated that holding LG elections would deny a significant portion of society their constitutional right to vote.
Just hours earlier, Dr. Farooq Sattar, the founder of the MQM Organization Restoration Committee, and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal declared they were burying the hatchet and joined the MQM-P to “jointly raise voice for the rights of the people of urban regions of Sindh.”
Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had issued a warning that they would not permit the local government elections to take place on January 15 if the issue of delimitations was not resolved during a press conference where the leaders announced the reunion of the MQM-P.
The PPP-led Sindh government and the ECP in Karachi both staged delimitations, which the MQM-P has rejected and criticised as unfair.
JI will protest in front of ECP.
In response to the Sindh government’s declaration that the province’s LG elections will be postponed, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi has declared that it will hold a sit-in outside the ECP today at 3 PM.
JI leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman criticised the declaration of the Sindh government and said that the polls were postponed out of concern for the will of the people while addressing an urgent press conference at the Noor-ul-Haq Institute in Karachi.
He continued by saying that the populace had been denied their democratic and political rights.
It is important to remember that the second round of LG elections was scheduled for July 24, 2022, across 16 districts of Sindh.
However, due to the lack of security and police presence brought on by the floods that devastated the country, particularly Sindh, the Sindh administration excused itself from holding the elections.
The LG elections were later moved to August 28; however, they were not held on that date, and a new date of October 23 was once more chosen.
However, on that day as well, the voting was delayed.
The ECP decided earlier this month that the scheduled date of January 15 will be used for the local government elections in Karachi, Hyderabad, and Thatta.
