The Supreme Court Wednesday disposed of a miscellaneous application filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), allowing it to announce a new schedule for the local government polls.
A three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the Election Commission's petition seeking delay in the local bodies elections.
During the hearing‚ the court approved the new schedule and ordered the Commission and provincial governments to set the dates after consent.
Earlier Wednesday, in an application to the apex court, ECP Additional Secretary Sher Afghan had suggested to the court that 18 Jan 2014 and Jan 30 be fixed respectively for Sindh and Punjab local body elections.
He proposed that any date in Feb could be fixed for elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and cantonment boards, whereas the date of Dec 7 should remain unchanged.
A three-member bench later took up the petition for hearing and accepted ECP’s request for delay in local bodies polls.
The court allowed the ECP to announce a schedule for the election as per its proposal. After which, the ECP is now likely to formally announce a new schedule for all four provinces.
According to the schedule proposed by the Election Commission‚ the local bodies polls in Punjab could be held on January 30 next year‚ and in Sindh on January 18.
The Election Commission‚ in its letter‚ further stated that the polls in Balochistan are being arranged on December 7.