Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has urged the masses to proactively participate in the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad. 

The PTI chief, in a statement, said his party was fighting against the political parties that were weakening Pakistan from inside for the last 30 years. People through their votes would prove that this was a new Pakistan, he added. 

However, the Sindh government on Saturday once again asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions, citing delimitation issue and unavailability of army troops for deployment at the polling stations. The Muttahidah Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), a key coalition partner of PDM and PPP in the Centre, is mulling the possibility of pulling out of the alliance if its demands regarding delimitation are not met. 

A day earlier, the top electoral body had rejected the provincial government’s identical plea to delay the elections, pledging that the LG polls would be held as planned on Jan 15. In the fresh letter to the provincial election commissioner, the Sindh government stated the ECP, through a Jan 13 order, rejected withdrawal of notification regarding the number of union committees in the Karachi division and Hyderabad district. 

“Furthermore, in the said order no response has been made to the concerns of the provincial govt regarding the unavailability of Pakistan Army & Civil Armed Forces,” the letter reads.