Summary The Election Commission has agreed conditionally to hold local elections on 20th of September.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya news) – The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Friday rejected the 4th schedule of local body elections. The hearing of the case related to local body elections held by 3 member bench led by Justice Jawad S Khawaja. The SC again objected to a new schedule presented by the Election Commission. Khawaja stated that the dates given for the municipal elections should be reduced to earlier ones. The Election Commission has agreed conditionally to hold local elections on 20th of September.
Khawaja said that the constitutional provisions cannot be put aside. The court also rejected the request to hold local body elections in Cantonment on 2nd of May instead of 25th April. Khawaja remarked that conducting the local elections was a job of the Election Commission which it did not perform. He stated that can anybody give an answer to the nation why these elections were not conducted. Khawaja further stated that the Election Commission is not answerable to any Federal or Provincial department but is a subordinate of the constitution.
Secretary for Election Commission Sher Afghan stated that they were ready to hold the local elections in Punjab and Sindh on 20th of September if 2 new printing machines were provided to the printing corporation. He stated that they even take back the proposal to hold step by step elections in the 2 provinces.
The court has ordered that the record of correspondence between the Election Commission and the establishment division regarding provision of new printing machine to be presented in the court in the next hearing. The court has also ordered that the schedule for local body elections should also be presented in the coming hearing of the case.
