JI urges ECP to ensure Islamabad local government polls without further delay
ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Naib Ameer Liaqat Baloch has said that the people of Islamabad are being denied their basic democratic right as local government elections in the federal capital have repeatedly been announced and then postponed.
He made these remarks while talking to the media after a JI delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner and held a detailed discussion on the issue of local bodies elections in Islamabad.
The delegation comprised JI Naib Ameer Liaqat Baloch, JI Naib Ameer Mian Muhammad Aslam and JI Islamabad Ameer Engineer Nasrullah Randhawa.
Liaqat Baloch said the Chief Election Commissioner acknowledged that the elections were delayed repeatedly because governments kept bringing amendments to the election law.
He said holding local government elections was a constitutional responsibility of the government, adding that the Constitution of Pakistan made the establishment of local bodies compulsory.
Baloch said the country remained trapped in continuous political confrontation, which benefited the civil-military establishment. He maintained that politics in the country could not become stable unless an empowered system of local governments was put in place.
He said people in Punjab were also being deprived of their basic rights as local government elections were not being held there. He added that no party, after coming into power, was ready to introduce a genuinely empowered local government system, while the Election Commission of Pakistan should also be fully empowered.
The JI leader said the Chief Election Commissioner informed the delegation that the Election Commission had sent around 63 electoral amendments to the government, but the government was not willing to act on them. He said the JI had asked the Chief Election Commissioner to provide the draft of those reform amendments so that the party could raise its voice on the matter.
Baloch said the Chief Election Commissioner had completed his term and also the two-year extension in service, while the matter of appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and two members was still unresolved. He said the government’s stubbornness was there, but the opposition leader should also step forward and play his role.
The JI naib ameer said ad hocism should come to an end and electoral reforms were essential in the country. He urged the National Assembly speaker to keep electoral reforms in view, adding that Jamaat-e-Islami’s reforms on proportional representation should also be included.
Liaqat Baloch said Islamabad’s local government elections had been postponed five times and the nomination papers fee had also been taken. He said the Chief Election Commissioner had assured that the amount would be returned. He also called for determining the tenure of local governments.
