Peshawar - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Kamran Bangash on Monday said the provincial government has challenged the decision of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for holding village councils and neighbourhood councils elections on party-basis in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Talking to media persons here, he said the KP government is of the opinion that the verdict of the high court is not clear and its implementation will require amendments in the Local Government Act that will make timely holding of local bodies’ elections difficult. However, he said that if the apex court also upholds the decision of the high court, then the elections would be held on the scheduled date (December 19).

Bangash said the provincial government has adopted a stance in the Supreme Court that the decision is not clear and how the electoral process for the general councillors of the village and neighbourhood councils will be held in the new situation. He said that each political party will issue three tickets and in such a case three candidates of the same party will contest against each other.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also agreed with their stance. He said that in the elections of VCs and NCs in the LBs polls of 2015 were also held on non-party basis and that model had proved very successful.

The provincial minister said that political parties should not be taken to such a grass-root level to divide families. He said that beside amendments in the Local Government Act, the implementation of the decision of Peshawar High Court will also require framing of new rules and the completion of this process will take more time.