ECP rejects govt's request to postpone by-polls

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday stated that local body elections in Karachi and by-polls for national and provincial assemblies will take place on their scheduled dates, Aaj News reported.

ECP's decision comes after the federal government requested the electoral watchdog to put off the by-polls for 90 days due to ongoing rehabilitation operations after the floods.

Earlier, ECP had announced to hold local bodies elections in all seven districts of Karachi on October 23. Similarly, the electoral watchdog had decided to hold by-elections in nine National Assembly and three provincial assembly constituencies on October 16.

ECP schedules Karachi local bodies elections for October 23

These include NA-22 (Mardan-III), NA-24 (Charsadda-II), NA-31 (Peshawar-V), NA-45 (Kurram-I), NA-108 (Faisalabad-VIII), NA-118 (Nankana Sahib-II), NA-237 (Malir-II), NA-239 (Korangi-I), NA-157 (Multan-IV), PP-139 (Sheikhupura-V), PP-241 (Bahawalnagar-V) and PP-209 (Khanewal-VII).

In a meeting of the commission today, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja announced that all by-polls would be held on time.

However, ECP said that the election in NA-45 (Kurram-I) cannot be held as per the previous schedule due to the law and order situation.

The ECP said that the date for the Kurram by-election would be announced later.