ECP again postpones Karachi’s LG-polls

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday once again postponed Local government (LG) elections over the request of PPP-led Sindh government.
The decision was taken by the ECP on the third request of the Sindh government to postpone the October 23 local body elections in 7 districts for 3 months.
Yesterday, a meeting of the ECP was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja to consider the third request of the Sindh government to postpone the LG-polls to be held on October 23.
The Sindh government maintains that it is facing difficulties in providing security for the elections as it faces a shortage of 16,000 police personnel.
The Election Commission directed the Federal Interior Ministry to inform whether it can provide 16,000 personnel for election duty or not.
ECP sources say that, the assurance of deployment of police personnel by the Interior Ministry can make it possible to conduct the LG-elections while the Defense Secretary has already expressed his inability to provide Army and Rangers personnel for deployment.
In the third application filed by the Sindh government, the Election Commission was informed that about 5,000 polling stations will be established for the peaceful conduct of the elections, and out of them, about 1,305 polling stations will be declared as highly sensitive and 3,688 as sensitive.
“39,293 police personnel will be required, Karachi Police has a total of 22,507 police personnel and the government will face a shortage of 16,786 police personnel,” Sindh government added.
The provincial government has planned to recruit 14,958 police personnel and 7,150 reserve personnel from other districts of the province to meet this gap.
The petition said that in the post-flood situation, the Karachi Police is performing additional duties in the flood-affected districts to ensure security of the flood affectees.
The Sindh government had requested that in view of the law and order situation, the local body elections to be held in Karachi on October 23 should be postponed for 3 months.