ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued schedule on Thursday for holding election of mayors and deputy mayors relating to the Sindh province. The elections would take place for district councils, municipal committees, town committees, municipal corporations, district municipal corporations and metropolitan corporations. However, elections of the municipal committee Thatta and district council Thatta, district Thatta and municipal committee, Gambat, district Khairpur would be conducted later. Public notice would be issued by the returning officers on August 3 and filing of nomination papers with them by the candidates would be done on August 5 and 6. Scrutiny of the nomination papers by the ROs would be done from August 8 to 10 and last date for filing of appeals against their decisions (accepting/rejecting the nomination papers) would be August 12. Last date for deciding appeals by appellate authorities would be August 13 and last date for withdrawal of candidature would be August 15. Publication of the revised list of candidates along with symbols would be August 16 and polling would be held on August 24. Consolidation and declaration of result by the Returning Officer will be done on August 25. To ensure that these elections in the Sindh province are conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 218(3) of the Constitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan directed that, “All Executive Authorities in the Federation and in the Provinces will neither announce any development project nor use state resources in Local Government Elections calculated to influence the elections in favour of a particular candidate.” If any person in government service misuses his official position in any manner in order to influence results of the elections, he would be liable to be proceeded against under Section 68 of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. No transfers/postings of the civil servants will be made after the issuance of election schedule of the Local Government Elections without prior approval of the commission till the publication of election results.