The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has demanded Rs. 18.365 billion from the Federal Government for conducting the second phase of local bodies elections in the country and revision of Electoral Rolls.
The Ministry of Finance had approved a total of Rs. 27 billion for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct local body elections across Pakistan, and initially, it had released around Rs. 4.7 billion for the first phase of Local Government polls in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was held in December 2021, official sources said.
Now, in a summary moved to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, the Election Commission of Pakistan has demanded Rs. 18.365 billion as a technical supplementary grant for conducting local government elections phase-II in KP, Phase-I in Punjab, and also in the Federal Capital.
The grant will also be utilized for periodical revision of Electoral Rolls, an official source told ProPakistani. The meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, which is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday), will take up the ECP summary regarding the grant release, the source said.
The Election Commission will conduct the second phase of elections in KP, the first phase in Punjab province, and the Federal capital. The LG polls in Sindh and Balochistan will also be conducted after the completion of the delimitation of the constituencies in these provinces.
The LG elections in the remaining Districts of KP will be held on 31 March, while the government of Punjab has asked ECP to hold the first phase of LG elections between 15 May 2022 to 31 May 2022. The Punjab government also wants to conduct the local bodies’ elections during the first phase of the LG election in Dera Ghazi Khan (DGK), Multan Division, Bahawalpur division, and Gujranwala division.
However, ECP is of the view that after delimitation and registration of electoral rolls it will decide about the divisions where the LG elections will take place in the first or second phase.
