The Sindh government has again requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reschedule the local government elections slated to take place in Karachi on October 23, citing lack of security personnel as a reason.
The LG polls have been deferred and rescheduled multiple times. In a letter sent to the ECP, the government has sought deferral of the LG polls for another 90 days, saying that free and transparent elections would not be possible without proper security arrangements. The letter says that Karachi has a larger population than Balochistan. For the conduct of the LG elections, the ECP intends to establish at least 5,000 polling stations. However, the Sindh government is responsible for making security arrangements for the polling stations, requiring at least 39,000 security personnel to maintain law and order.
The letter says that at present, the government has only 22,507 police personnel to be deployed at polling stations. In addition, there are 1,305 extremely sensitive and 3,688 sensitive polling stations in the city. Currently, thousands of Karachi police personnel are providing assistance to flood victims, and they are out of the city performing duties in other districts of the province. Likewise, flood victims have moved to Karachi, and police personnel are required to provide them security too. Therefore, the election commission should review its decision and postpone the elections for at least three months so that they can be conducted in a transparent manner without any law and order situation.
