Faisal Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: PTI has decided to contest the upcoming local government elections in the capital, with the party’s regional leadership directing district and town organisations to file nomination papers in every ward across all union councils between November 2 and 6, it emerged on Wednesday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has scheduled the polls for December 20.

Mughal said that PTI visited areas across the city to get input from the people, claiming that “over 95 per cent of people suggested contesting the elections.”

“They were of the view that the government can not do more than what it is already doing with the party. So we will contest without going into what kind of election symbols are allotted to our candidates,” he said.

Replying to a question, Mughal said the commission had already postponed the election four times and feared further postponement again due to PTI’s popularity.

Meanwhile, in a press release issued on Wednesday, the party said Mughal, Shoaib Shaheen and Malik Aamir had held more than 25 meetings across the three electoral constituencies over the past three days.

It said that the decision to participate in the elections was taken after a series of online consultations with around 400 office-bearers representing the regional and district organisations, eight town organisations, all 125 union councils, and various party wings and committees, including the labour wing, Insaf Students Federation, youth, traders and women’s wings, the advisory council, working committee and core committee.

According to the statement, 95pc of the office-bearers consulted supported contesting the elections.