The ruling PTI has been chanting the slogan of devolving powers to the local level without any break, but it is now running away from delivering its own promise as the federal and provincial governments have been shying away from the directives of ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan), reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

Hence, the PTI-led setups at the Centre and the provinces are not taking the ECP seriously which repeatedly issued orders in connection with holding local government elections.

Sources say the federal government completely ignored the letters sent by the ECP about sharing the final figures of the census conducted in 2017.

Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the PTI is in government since 2013 hasn’t shared the rules for conducting the local government polls.

When it comes to Punjab, the provincial government has been making different excuses regarding issuing notification about the rules as well as the demarcation of tehsils and revenue villages.  

The Punjab government also hasn’t told the ECP yet whether it wants to organise polls simultaneously across the province or it prefers a phase-wise exercise.

Punjab is the best example of how to backtrack from the promises made with the people as the PTI dissolved the local governments after coming into power in the province where these institutions were most effective.

On the other hand, the sources say, it has become very difficult to have local government elections in Sindh on time in the absence of a final report on the last national census.

Meanwhile, Balochistan is an even more interesting case as the provincial government has taken a stay order on elections from the Balochistan High Court.

In this scenario, the ECP has again written a letter to the federal government as a reminder about sharing the final figures related to the census.

 

Zeeshan Bhatti reported this news for 24NewsHD TV.