Staff Report
PESHAWAR: Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Haji Ghulam Ali, on Saturday gave the strongest indication that upcoming elections could be postponed as he pointed to the ‘extreme security situation’ in the province.
He was addressing the media outside the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in Peshawar after a visit to meet with the Police Lines suicide attack survivors.
He said that today there exists a situation in the province where thousands of people are displaced from the merged tribal districts due to terrorism while terror attacks pose a real challenge to the security forces.
He said holding free, fair, transparent, and safe elections were impossible in such a situation.
“When there are polls, it is the responsibility of the police and the provincial government to provide security. He asked if anyone wants to get to a point where there are elections in the Wana sub-division of South Waziristan, and women say they cannot go to vote?” he said.
Governor says elections were postponed after Benazir’s assassination
He said they had invited the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for discussions in this regard.
Asked whether they were looking to delay polls, Ghulam Ali said this would not be the first time in history that elections have been postponed. He referred to how polls were delayed after the assassination of former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
“There exists in the Constitution Article 254 that allows not holding constitutionally-mandated actions in their stipulated time,” he said.
