PTI, JI to move Supreme Court over delayed LG polls

Staff Reporter
KARACHI: After the Election Commission of Pakistan agreed to a suggestion from the provincial government and deferred indefinitely local government elections in the province, it drew a strong reaction from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat Islami (JI) who threatened to go to court unless elections are held immediately.
In separate news conferences, leaders of both parties lashed out at the Sindh government, accusing it of reluctance to hold local bodies election due to their vested interests in the megalopolis of Karachi.
In a press conference on Tuesday, JI Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that government’s efforts to postpone local bodies’ election had finally paid off.
He added that it showed that the PPP stood staunchly against democratic norms as well as the city’s progress. He demanded that provincial election chief commissioner resign over the delay in local bodies’ election. “We will file a petition against the Sindh government in the Supreme Court,” he said.
PTI leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi, in a separate statement, also criticized the federal government’s coalition partner and a major party from the urban areas of Karachi and Hyderabad, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).