Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) said on Friday that holding the local body election in Karachi and Hyderabad would be illegal and could not be staged until fresh delimitation.

The MQM-P’s announcement came hours after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) overruled the Sindh government’s request to postpone the local body election in Karachi and Hyderabad and decided that polls be held as per schedule on January 15.

Following the ECP’s decision MQM-P’s Farogh Naseem while addressing a press conference in Karachi said that the union ouncils formed by the Sindh government were not correct.

“The provincial government had determined the constituencies for the LG polls under Sindh Local Government Act Section 10(1), but the constituencies had a disproportional population,” he added.

Naseem said that MQM-P was the only party that approached the court against the determination of the constituencies and that PTI also supported MQM-P’s stance. “There was a conspiracy to divide the vote of the Muhajir population.”

The MQM leader said that there are 90,000 votes in one UC and 30,000 in the other. “According to the law, there should not be a difference of more than 10 percent in the UCs and we have time and again filed petitions in the courts including the Supreme Court against the move.”

Faisal Sabzwari during the presser said that the constitution empowers the election commission to conduct transparent elections. He said that despite the large population of Nazimabad, the seats there were fewer.

“Only MQM challenged the census in the court, the government had to form an inter-ministerial committee, so we demand that the population of Karachi should be counted correctly,” Sabzwari said.