President Zardari hints local body elections before general polls

In what appeared to be a surprised movement, President Asif Ali Zardari has said that local body elections would be held before general polls.

The president told his party leadership while presiding over a meeting of Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) core committee in Bilawal House Karachi.

He also issued directives to hold municipal elections before general elections and also to bring an ordinance for the local body polls if required.

It is vital to mention here that the two ally parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the PPP continue to diverge on the issue of local body elections.

In order to resolve the issue through dialogue between the two parities, President Zardari constituted a three-member committee.

The body is comprised Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani and Law Minister Muhammad Ayaz Soomro.

Earlier, the provincial leadership of the party briefed the president on different issues including matters relating to the coalition partners and local body polls.

The law and order situation of the province, particularly the provincial metropolis, also came in under discussion.

President Zardari directed the ministers, provincial lawmakers and party workers to reach out in particular to people in remote areas of Sindh and enhance contacts with voters in their respective constituencies in preparation for the upcoming general polls.

A report quoting President Zardari said, “He asked the chief minister to complete all development projects on time and also release Rs0.5 million to party workers who have been targeted in the city”.

It further said that the president was not happy with PPP MNA Abdul Qadir Patel for his statements against the coalition partners, and directed him and others to avoid creating conflict.

The president also directed the ministries of petroleum, finance and water and power to work in unison and make concerted efforts to resolve the issue of electricity crisis.

The WAPDA chairperson briefed the meeting on various hydel power projects, including Laraib project which has a capacity to generate 487MW of electricity by March 2013.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 3 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.