The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has uploaded nomination papers on its website and appointed election officers to hold local bodies (LB) polls in Punjab and Sindh, but the fate of polls is still hanging in the balance as sources in ECP said the commission is unable to hold the elections within stipulated time.
Sources in ECP on Saturday told Pakistan Today that the commission was in touch with various political parties and urged them to file a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to seek more time to hold the polls, because it would be difficult for the ECP to hold free and fair elections in given time.
Sources said that political parties, major stakeholders in the LB polls, have assured the commission that they would file a petition in the SC and take up this case at every appropriate forum to get more time.
Earlier, on Thursday, ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution, rejecting schedules giving by the ECP on the SC orders and called for a new time-frame.
According to the schedule, the LB elections in Punjab and Balochistan would be held on December 7 and on November 27 in Sindh. Sources said the state-run printing corporations have already showed their inability to print over 500 million ballot papers within stipulated time. Political parties have shown reservations over printing of ballot papers from private printers, from where they can easily be leaked or stolen.
Whereas, the ECP and political parties also have concerns about delimitation of constituencies as in some cases, this process is yet to be completed. They said that keeping all difficulties being faced by the ECP in preparation of holding elections in specified time, political parties had passed a resolution.
“This House resolves that conducting the LG elections in hasty and non-transparent manner will cast a doubt on the credibility not only of the process but also results.
The ECP must ensure that proper procedures are followed and minimum required time must be allotted for free, fair and transparent LG elections,” read unanimously passed resolution.
It also said that the state-run printing corporation had shown its inability to carry out its legal obligation to print millions of ballot papers in the given time. Printing of ballot papers from any private printing press may not be acceptable as it would make the transparency of election process questionable.
Meanwhile, the ECP on Saturday uploaded nomination papers on its website. There are two-page nomination papers for those who want to contest elections against the seats of General members, Women members, Peasant/Worker members, Youth members and for non-Muslim members. While, candidate for chairman and vice chairman slots, are supposed to file two-page joint nomination papers.
In relatively simple nomination papers, candidates are simply asked about their name, CNIC number and name of the electoral roll, where they are registered as voters. Candidates can upload nomination papers from the ECP website. (www.ecp.gov.pk).
An ECP spokesman said that printing of the nomination papers was in progress. He said that as many as 5,000,000 papers are being printed for Punjab and 800,000 for Sindh.
The ECP also issued names of district returning officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers in this regard. The district coordination officers (DCO) have been assigned duties of the district returning officers.
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