The Sindh government has not provided list of sensitive polling stations to the election commission, sources told Business Recorder. The election commission has asked the Sindh chief secretary to immediately provide list of sensitive polling stations in the first phase of local government elections, starting from August 18.
Polling would be held in 11 districts and 589 union councils in Sindh. The election commission has received a large number of complaints about pre-poll rigging in Sindh.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has been demanding that the local government election in Sindh in general and Karachi in particular should be supervised by the army, while the provincial government has outrightly rejected such a possibility.
Timely provision of list would enable the election commission either to postpone election in those areas or it would direct the provincial government for taking special security measures to ensure law and order.
When asked whether the election commission has received any list of sensitive polling stations from the four provinces, election commission secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad said: "The list is being provided to the EC."
He went on to say that it was the responsibility of the provincial government to maintain law and order during elections.
Dilshad said the election commission was taking all necessary steps needed to hold free, fair and transparent elections and has asked provincial governments to take every step required to maintain law and order during upcoming local government elections.
Sources further told chief election commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar would have a detail meeting in two days with officials of the Sindh government on security arrangements.
The chief election commissioner would like to know about details of security arrangements the provincial government has made so far regarding local government elections.