ISLAMABAD — ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Thursday accused the federal government of trying to sabotage the local government elections in Islamabad, clarifying that the polls would be held as scheduled. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has scheduled the polls for Dec 20.
The last LG term expired in Feb 2021, and the ECP was supposed to conduct elections within 120 days. However, the federal government and the ECP spent the last several years carrying out delimitations and announcing election schedules, only to postpone the polls later. On Thursday, a three-member bench headed by the CEC heard the case about alleged violations of the electoral code in the NA-77 by-election .
During the hearing, Raja mentioned that the federal government has ordered that teachers would not be assigned duty in the Islamabad LG polls. “Where will the [ECP] bring staff from?” asked Raja, who remains the CEC by virtue of the 26th Amendment , though his constitutionally mandated five-year term ended on Jan 26, 2025. “The [ECP] issues directions to the prime minister and the government; directions do not come from them to us,” the election commissioner said.