KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Jamaat-iIslami called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan to fulfilits constitutional responsibility by holding local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad on time.

Both the parties expressed their expectations from the ECP at their separate press conferences here on Tuesday.Speaking at a press conference, former federal minister and PTISindh president Ali Zaidi said that the PTI would resist any move from the ruling parties and would make everyeffortusing alllegal and democratic forums for timely elections.

`Like other parts of the country, chairman Imran Khan is also clear about this and confident that this bandit rule in Sindh should end, he said. `And for that, the PTI Sindh is going to be a major force for a massive movement going ontrue freedom.

`These bandits know the that they can`t hold any ground if the fair and free elections are held. So they are running away from the elections. But we wouldn`t let them get away with that.

He said that the PPP did not want to lose Karachi from its provincial administration`s control mainly for the financial reasons.

`Years of bad governance, corruption and violation of law are on PPP`s credit. They have nothing towin votes in Karachi and today they have conceded defeat. The people of Karachi wouldn`t forgive the PPP and we expect the ECP that it would fulfill its responsibility for free, fair and timely LG polls,` added Mr Zaidi.

Recalling former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on his 15th deathanniversary,he said thatshe would have been deeply disappointed seeing the current state of affairs at her party which had been `hijacked by his husband Asif Ali Zardari for exploitation and vested interests`.

JI urges CJP to take suo motu notice The Jamaat-i-Islami on Tuesday appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the `unconstitutional measures` on part of the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan against the local government elections in Karachi.

Speaking at a press conference here, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman spoke at length about the upcoming local government elections and demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan hold the LG polls as per the announced schedule on Jan 15, 2023.

He called it anti-democratic attempt being made by the Sindh government to resuscitate the dead political horses in the country.He said the PPP had written a letter to the ECP against holding the polls in the city for the fourth time. This time, he maintained, the PPP was using the pretext of a demand made by the MQM-P for f resh delimitation of union committees in the city.

`The PPP has been ruling the province for over 14 years and the MQM is fully cooperating with the PPP. The two parties could have opted for delimitation, reforms or whatever they name, but they didn`t and now they are using every possible excuse to get rid of the local government elections in Karachi,` he added.

Talking about the allegations levelled by PPP leader and minister Nasir Shah, he said the minister had recently recognised that only the JI was raising voice on the matter of population census in the city.

He continued that the JI didn`t left the ground in Karachi when the city of lights was suffering from the culture of bodies and the PPP was unable to even hoist a single flag in the city.