Provinces refuse to pay full bill of LB Polls

ISLAMABAD: The provincial governments have refused to bear total expenses of the local government elections, ARY News reported on Tuesday. 

Citing sources, ARY News reported that the federal ministry of finance had told the provincial governments to provide funds to the election commission for holding local bodies polls in respective provinces. 

All federating units informed the finance ministry that under the 18th constitutional amendment holding elections is the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan, which is a federal department, so it is responsibility of the federation to pay for the polls.

However, after detailed deliberations and debate over various clauses of the constitution the provincial ministers of finance agreed to share 50 percent burden of the election expenditure. 

An estimated amount of 6.5 billion rupees required for expenditure of the local government elections.