The poll panel made the decision during an informal meeting on Monday evening after receiving reports from poll officials and caretaker governments in the four provinces —Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North West Fro-ntier Province — about the impact of the protests on election arrangements and the law and order situation.

The Election Commission decided that the polls should be put off till the third week of February so that ballot boxes and electoral rolls destroyed in the protests can be replaced and the printing of ballot papers can be completed, Dawn News channel quoted sources in the panel as saying.

The Election Commission is expected to make a formal announcement about the postponement of the polls till February when it meets again on Tuesday morning.

Elections to the national and four provincial assemblies were scheduled to be held on January 8, but preparations have been hit by violent protests across the country, particularly in the southern Sindh province.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Indian Express, after a crowded press conference in Lahore’s plush Model Town area, Nawaz Sharif said, “We decided to boycott the polls after Benazir was assassinated and showed solidarity with the PPP leadership and the people of Pakistan who were in mourning. But we changed our decision as the People’s Party decided to take part in the polls. I spoke to our key leaders and we have decided to take part in the polls, because it is important that we don’t allow those forces, which have subverted the democratic institutions, to get away with murder.”

“Everyone knows that

Benazir had said that if she was harmed, Musharraf is one of the persons to be held responsible,” he said, without pointing a direct finger at Musharraf, when asked if he thought that Musharraf was behind the assassination.

Reiterating that these were the “gloomy days in Pakistan”, he said at the press conference that “Musharraf is one-man calamity and he must go immediately. Pakistan is paying a heavy price for the bone-headed decisions of one man.”

Addressing mediapersons, he said, “Pakistan today is a military state where a former PM can be gunned down in broad daylight.”

About his own security, he said that the “law and order situation in Pakistan is not good” and that the security provided to him was “not adequate” and “unsatisfactory”.