Punjab govt rejects ECP’s demarcation of union councils

• CM Punjab held a meeting on the demarcation of UCs
• The meeting rejected ECP’s notification on delimitation
• The ECP has issued preliminary lists of UC demarcation

LAHORE: Punjab government has rejected the demarcation of union councils in the province for conducting the Local Government elections.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started demarcation of union councils in Punjab for holding local government elections in the province.

In this regard, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi chaired a high-level consultative meeting that rejected the ECP’s notification regarding the delimitations in union councils.

Speaker Punjab Assembly Muhammad Sibtain Khan, Provincial Ministers Mian Aslam Iqbal, Raja Basharat, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid and MNA Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Shah participated in the meeting.

The meeting unanimously rejected the election commission’s unilateral notification regarding the delimitation of union councils.

During the meeting, it was stated that the notification does not fulfill legal requirements and that the Punjab government will not accept it. It added that the notification s an attempt to bulldoze public opinion.

CM Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said the local people and administration were not included in the process of delimitation.

He said the legal and constitutional route will be adopted against the ECP’s notification. He added the Government of Punjab will play its role according to the law and constitution.

Elahi said municipal bodies are the nurseries of democracy and problems can only be solved through a strong government formed by the people. He said strong local governments cannot exist if there are any restrictions.

He said the ECP’s notification is apparently a malicious and nefarious attempt to benefit a particular party. He expressed serious reservations regarding this unilateral notification

The legal and constitutional aspects regarding the notification were also reviewed in the consultative meeting.

The ECP is determined to hold local bodies elections in the province and has started the demarcation of union councils in Punjab.

The election commission has issued the preliminary lists of the UCs demarcations and placed them in the offices of district election commissioners.  In Lahore, 402 union councils have been made.

The objections over the demarcations could be submitted between Jan 9-23.  The ECP has established authorities to give their decisions on the objections.

The regional election commissioners of all divisions have been appointed as delimitation authority.= Director legal delimitation authority for Lahore has been appointed in the provincial election commission.

The decisions on the objections would be taken from Jan 9 to Feb 3. The final list of the union councils delimitation will be issued on Feb 12.

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