KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet has agreed to postpone the local elections in Karachi Division for a further 90 days.
It was disclosed in a letter the regional government sent on Friday to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The action was taken a day after the Sindh High Court (SHC) reprimanded the ECP for delaying the local bodies (LB) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad and issued a warning.
A circulation summary approved the suggestion to postpone the elections.
The Sindh Local Government Act of 2013 was invoked by the Sindh cabinet to take this move.
During the hearing of the petitions filed by PTI and JI, the SHC expressed its disappointment over the local government election delay on Thursday.
A two-person bench presided over by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh of the Sindh High Court took up the case.
Justice Yousaf Ali questioned the ECP counsel on why local government elections kept getting postponed during the hearing. Elections for local government should be held, according to CJ Shaikh.
According to SHC CJ, the court would not give the government much leeway and would require a report as soon as feasible. The court further ordered the DG Rangers and the IGP Sindh to either designate an officer or provide the court with all of the information on their strength.
The LG elections that were supposed to take place on August 28 in Karachi and Hyderabad Divisions were again postponed by the ECP, prompting the PTI and JI to petition the SHC.
For the third time, the ECP has postponed the October 23 local government polls in Karachi.