The Government of Sindh has informed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that it will not be able to hold the second phase of the local government elections in Karachi for at least three months as the police force is not available for the elections’ security.
Responding to the letter of the ECP on Tuesday, the Sindh government told the ECP that 37 thousand policemen are required for the local bodies’ elections’ security duty whereas 17 thousand police personnel are engaged in relief and rehabilitation activities in the flood-affected areas of the province while five thousand policemen are in Islamabad to tackle the PTI long march.
Keeping the whole situation in mind, the provincial government informed the ECP that it cannot conduct the elections under the current circumstances.
It is pertinent to mention here that on 18th October, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) once again postponed the local government (LG) polls in Karachi – scheduled for October 23, 2022.
In a meeting gathered to decide on the elections following the request of the Sindh government, ECP has indefinitely postponed the polls.
Earlier, the Sindh government for the third time urged the ECP to postpone the local body elections in Karachi due to a lack of security.
[embedpost slug=”ecp-seeks-report-from-cs-sindh-for-holding-lg-elections-in-karachi/”]
The provincial government wrote a letter requesting the election commission to postpone local bodies’ elections in Karachi for three months. Free and fair polls cannot be held without proper security, the government argued.
The letter states that Karachi is the most populous division of the country with a population bigger than Balochistan. It added that Karachi is a densely populated division/metropolitan city of the country and requires elaborate arrangements for holding elections for maintaining law and order.
At least 5,000 polling stations would be established to hold the LG polls, requiring at least 39,000 security personnel to maintain law and order, while the government only has 22,507 personnel to deploy for the LG polls, it added.
