The EC took this stance in response to various reports regarding the election schedule for the upcoming local council elections. "All reports are pre­mature and have been rejected by the Commission. The chief election commissioner has already announced that the election schedule will be pre­sented after budgetary sessions of the national and provincial assemblies are completed," Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad told Daily Times on Friday.

"After the recent Amend­ments to the Local Government Ordinance,. provincial election authorities' have been given reduced roles while powers of the CEC have been enhanced on many counts," said the sec­retary. Dilshad said the CEC had sent directives to provin­cial chief secretaries to ensure that constituencies in new dis­tricts were redrawn on time. He said the stage was set to conduct the local government elections and all necessary arrangements had either been completed or were being finalised.

However,  a well-placed source told Daily Times that the election schedule was unlikely to be announced in the current month and would prob­ably be given in early July.

Meanwhile on Friday, a high-level delegation of foreign diplomats called on the EC sec­retary and discussed election arrangements that had been made. Peter Wilson, British High Commission political counsel­lor, led the delegation. Other members included Christopher Payot, Embassy of Belgium deputy head of mission, Vicente Jose Taladriz, Embassy of Spain deputy head of mission, Heleen van der Beek, Royal Netherlands Embassy first secretary, Hideki Ishizuka, Embassy of Japan counsellor, and Christoph Sander, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany deputy head.