Karachi: In a dramatic move on Friday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected the sudden decision of the Sindh government to put off again local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad and announced that the polls will be held as per schedule on January 15, 2023.
Late on Thursday night, the Sindh cabinet in an extraordinary meeting with Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in the chair decided to defer the local government polls in order to rectify the controversial issue of delimitation of the constituencies in the urban parts of the province.
The issue of delimitations was forcefully raised by Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Pakistan which also rallied in the city to get it resolved. The MQM gained strength on Thursday as its two breakaway factions announced a merger with it.
Former Karachi mayor, Syed Mustafa Kamal, and Dr Farooq Sattar, who were earlier heading their own political entities after parting ways with their parent party, reconciled their differences with the MQM and announced rejoining it.
They appeared at a press conference along with MQM chief, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, and emphatically told the Sindh government and ECP that the local government polls in Karachi were simply unacceptable to them without resolving the delimitations controversy.
They threatened the authorities concerned to go to any length including forcibly blocking the busiest road in Karachi to make sure that the elections were not held on January 15.
The Sindh government took the warning seriously on the basis of the fact that the MQM is a coalition partner with the Pakistan People’s Party, the ruling party in Sindh, in the federal government. The coalition government in Islamabad wouldn’t survive if the MQM decided to withdraw its support.
The Sindh cabinet in its emergency meeting decided to withdraw the delimitation notifications issued by its Local Government Department so that the polls shouldn’t be held in the two cities.
A delegation of MQM including its newly rejoined leaders Kamal and Dr Sattar met CM and provincial ministers at CM House and thanked them for the cabinet decision for settling the delimitation issue.
The decision of the Sindh cabinet infuriated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the two parties keen to clinch the coveted position of Karachi mayor after winning the local government elections. They announced staging protest demonstrations in the city against the surprising cabinet decision.
The ECP held an emergency meeting with Chief Election Commissioner, Sikandar Sultan Raja, in the chair and decided to scrap the decision of the Sindh cabinet.
The PTI and JI leaders welcomed the decision of the ECP.
