The Election Commission of Pakistan now wants the schedule for the local bodies polls in Punjab and Sindh extended by another month to October, pleading difficulties because of the floods. The Supreme Court had directed on March 10, 2015 that the Election Commission of Pakistan provide a timetable by the end of July. The Election Commission now argues that certain requirements are still incomplete, like the publication of the final delimitation of constituencies, revisions of electoral rolls and legal formalities. It says that the Punjab government had amended certain rules under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, and as a consequence pertinent sections of the Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules 2013 require modification. The Sindh government proposes to revise the regulations for direct and indirect elections. In view of this, amendments would be required in the Sindh Local Council (Election) Rules 2015 and in the absence of these, printing of nomination papers would not be possible. The Election Commission clarified that after the final publication of the list of constituencies, voters have a right to verify their authentic constituency. Under Section 20 of the Electoral Rolls Act 1974, a registered voter cannot avail this privilege once the concluding list of constituencies has been published. The law allows voters a 30-day period to register any complaints or amendments, though the Election Commission is advocating only a week. All the above problems stated by the Election Commission indicate tasks that do not actually require them to wade into the torrents of floodwater. The obvious sensible solution is to conduct the elections on schedule in areas that are not engulfed by floods. The Election Commission in any case was of the opinion in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LB elections held recently that these should be conducted phase-wise, which if followed may have avoided some of the confusion and mismanagement in that exercise. In the light of the Election Commission’s earlier recommendation vis-à-vis Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it makes eminent sense to conduct the first phases of the local bodies polls in Punjab and Sindh in the areas not affected by floods and leave those areas so affected to the later phase/s. There is no logical reason for the rest of these provinces to be deprived of the opportunity to elect their local representatives at the basic foundation of the democratic edifice according to schedule. *