• Sharjeel Memon said LG elections will be held as per schedule
• He said Police and Rangers will be deployed for the polls
• He said no ordinance is  under consideration to stop polling

KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Imam Memon has said the Local Government (LG) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad Division will be held on January 15 as scheduled by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

In a statement, the minister said the election commission has announced the decision to conduct the polls and the provincial government cannot stop them.

He said Police and Rangers will be deployed outside polling stations on election day. He said no ordinance is under consideration to stop conducting the polls while polls will be held in line with the instructions.

“The Pakistan Army has excused itself, so for ensuring law and order situation, we will deploy Rangers and police,” the information minister added.

In a surprising decision, the Sindh government postponed the local bodies elections due to reservations Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) over delimitations. It was the fourth time that the polls were delayed by the Sindh government.

However, the ECP rejected the Sindh government’s request to postpone the elections and decided to hold local government polls in Karachi and Hyderabad as per schedule.

The decision was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja in Islamabad that reviewed the situation after the provincial government’s announcement.

Earlier today, Memon said the local government elections will not be held in Karachi, Hyderabad, and Dadu.  He said the Sindh government withdrew the notification regarding the delimitations of the constituencies in Karachi after reservations by the MQM.

“They (MQM) are our allies in the federal government and we take the concerns of our allies very seriously,” the minister said.

The information minister defended the decision to delay the polls days before they are being held He said the government could not decide since institutions were hearing cases regarding it.

He said MQM has been their ally and current in the federal coalition government so they will address their reservations.

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