The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has extended the date for submission of nomination papers for local government elections in Balochistan. According to the ECP, the commission has extended further three days and now the candidates can submit their nomination papers by April 21 to the Returning Officers (ROs) of respective districts. As per the schedule issued by ECP, the process of submitting nomination papers to the Returning Officers for the Local Government elections in 32 districts of Balochistan was started from April 15. Apart from Quetta and Lasbela, the first phase of Local Govt elections would be held in 32 districts of Balochistan on May 29, 2022 as per ECP schedule. In all Union Councils, 33 percent seats have been allocated for women, 5 percent for farmers and workers and 5 percent seats for non-Muslims in the Local Government elections. There are 5,345 rural wards besides 914 urban wards. CM seeks report on driver’s killing: Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddus Bizinjo has taken notice of the situation that arose in the border district of Chaghi as a result of border driver’s death and asked Commissioner Rakhshan division to submit a comprehensive report of the incident immediately. Justice would be delivered to the bereaved family of the deceased driver, Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bijinzo said. He also issued directives to Chief Secretary for the immediate transfer of the Deputy Commissioner Chaghi and Assistant Commissioners Dalbandin and Taftan. Couple of days back, a driver namely Hamdullah Baloch was killed reportedly by the firing of the law enforcement agencies when former did not stop his vehicle despite several warnings from the lEAs personnel in Dalbandin, a bordering area of Chaghi district. In reaction to the incident, the area’s people started a protest by blocking the main highway and the railway track demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits. They contended that the deceased driver used to earn a living by going to the border and killing without any justification was never acceptable. Balochistan govt recruits teachers: Balochistan government has given approval to recruit teachers on stop-gap arrangement basis to tackle the challenges and overcome the workforce shortage in the education sector. According to an official source, the government has created multiple posts for teachers to fulfill the vacant positions and ensure availability of teachers in every school of the province. The government would be appointing teachers and other staff at district level on ad-hoc basis at far flung areas of the province, he said. The initiative aimed to address the shortage of teachers and staff in schools and Education Department of the province. He said the government has also taken notice of teachers and staff posted in the schools in far-flung areas of the province who were not performing their duties. The Education Department has directed to take strict action against the absentees to make the teachers present at their deployment place. The government had given the approval to make 1,493 GPE teachers permanent, besides, around 2,349 new posts were also being created in the education department, he added. The present government has also appointed 6,592 staff in the education department of the province to ensure the availability of teachers in every school. He said all available resources would be utilized for the betterment of the education sector. The Balochistan government has also a plan to establish 100 new middle schools, for which Rs 1500 million were being allocated in the annual budget 2021-22 to provide the best education to the masses in the province.