Pakistan provinces vote in local government polls

Islamabad: Voters lined up outside polling stations on Saturday as voting for the first phase of the much-delayed local body polls in Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Polling started at 7.30 am and will continue till 5.30 pm, Dawn online reported. 

Over 25 million citizens will exercise their right to elect local govenment (LG) representatives in 12 districts of Punjab and eight of Sindh. Other districts in the two provinces will go to polls in two phases to follow.

In Punjab, 40,101 candidates are in the run for 1,578 union councils and 1,118 wards of 60 municipal committees, while 774 have been elected unopposed.

In Sindh, over 10,000 candidates are vying for 2,333 constituencies falling in various tiers of municipal units.

The Election Commission has clarified that holding expired computerised national identity cards does not invalidate the voters from casting their votes.

The last LG polls were held in 2005 during the reign of former president Pervez Musharraf.