LG by-elections will be held in Sindh on April 18

ISLAMABAD: Local Government by-elections in Sindh would be held on April 18, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the schedule on Friday.

According to the ECP, by-elections for 93 Union Councils of the both phases would be conducted across the province.

The nomination papers would be submitted from March 20 to 23, the lists will be displayed on March 24 whereas the final list of the candidates would be published on April 5.

The ECP said that electoral symbols would be allotted on April 7.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi Chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has welcome the announcement and said that they would not need to stage a sit-in if the ECP worked as per the constitution and law.

The JI had launched a full scale campaign for the by-elections in remaining 11 UCs of Karachi.

Earlier on March 8, the Jamaat-e-Islami moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the delay in holding local government elections in Karachi for the 11 remaining union committees.

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JI city chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman’s petition said that despite a lapse of 50 days, the provincial government had not held polls for the offices of chairman and vice chairman in the UCs where LG elections had been postponed due to the candidates’ deaths.

Rehman’s counsel Usman Farooq said the JI leader had also approached the election commissioner to request that the LG polls schedule be announced, but no such announcement had been made.

He said the situation was making the city’s residents believe that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was extending a favour to the province’s ruling party.

He explained that there was every likelihood that the JI’s candidates were set to win in the 11 UCs, which was evident from the results of the polls for the general seats there.

He also said the delaying tactics were seemingly aimed at keeping the chairmen and vice chairmen out of the city council and the town councils to stop them from voting in the elections for the mayor and the town chairmen.

The counsel said the returning officers had illegally changed the results of a number of UCs, and they had been challenged before the ECP, following which the results of 20 UCs had been withheld.

He said the voters of the UCs concerned were being deprived of their right to elect their representatives as chairmen and vice chairmen.