Daily Times

KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced that elections for the post of mayor, deputy mayor, six district chairmen and vice-chairmen of 448 local committee seats of Karachi will be held on June 29th as nomination papers are being issued tomorrow (Saturday). The local government elections in Karachi were held on December 5, 2015. The Election Commission of Pakistan had postponed elections on reserved seats for the local government of Sindh, delaying the right of franchise for seven to eleven months. According to the schedule, nomination papers will be collected by the commission on June 15 and 16 for mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman of district councils, metropolitan corporations, municipal corporations, town and municipal committees. Papers will be scrutinised on June 17 and 18 while appeals against returning officers’ decision could be made until June 20. Candidate can withdraw their papers by June 22nd. A notification carrying names of the winning candidates will be issued on July 2nd. The final list of candidates and their electoral symbols will be issued on June 1 and after polling on June 29, final results will be announced on July 2. The newly elected candidates will take oaths on July 4th. Earlier, last month, the commission postponed the final phase municipal elections of mayor, deputy mayors and others. According to the schedule released then, polling had to be conducted on June 8. ECP stated that schedule for the last phase of Sindh local body elections was pushed ahead on Sindh High Court’s orders. The polls were held in 209 union committees (UCs) Karachi on December 5th last year and were contested by all major parties including MQM, PTI, JI, PPP and PML-N. There are 51 UCs in Karachi’s Central District, 46 in West, 37 in Korangi, 31 each in East and South and 13 in Malir District. The total reserved seats for Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) are 99 including 69 seats for women and 10 each for labour, youth and minorities.