LG polls not possible next month?

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will intimate the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan that it is helpless in holding the Local Government (LG) polls in September as the provinces have not completed their legislations on local governance. A meeting of the ECP held on Monday reviewed the progress being made towards LG polls in the light of directive of Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Commission agreed that it would require at least 90 days to complete arrangements to hold LG polls across the country at the same time.
"After the passage of legal framework by the provinces, it would require at least 90 days to make preparations for conduct of the LB polls," an official of ECP said. The Supreme Court had directed all the four provinces to conduct LG elections by September and ordered legislation in this regard to be completed by August 15. Political experts believe that the major political parties such as the PML-N and the PPP see the devolution of power to the grassroots level and empowerment of local representatives as a threat to their political and financial control and dominance. During their last governments, the two parties successfully managed to evade local bodies' elections from taking place in the country.
According to the ECP, no province has completed legislation for the LG elections despite a lot of reminders. "Political statements and sermons are being delivered by provincial lawmakers, but in reality provinces are not working on the legal framework for holding LG elections," the ECP official said. Recently, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had said that his party would request the Supreme Court for another six months to make arrangements for local bodies' elections, as they wanted to make some changes in the local bodies' law of 1979. He also cited the law and order challenge.
The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), which had even before the Supreme Court order announced its willingness to hold local elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it is in-charge of the provincial government, sees these elections as an opportunity to gain strong foothold in Punjab and other provinces. In Punjab, the PML-N too showed its preference for the old local bodies system than the Musharraf-era Local Government Ordinance (LGO) of 2001. But even after scrapping the 2001 LGO, the PML-N did not go for local elections. Instead, it kept on writing and rewriting the so-called new system, which in its spirit and structure resembles General Zia's local bodies order.