ISLAMABAD: A high level meeting here on Tuesday at the Aiwan-e-Sadr decided that the chief ministers of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan would hold local government elections in four months.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani jointly presided over the meeting.After listening to the chief minister of Balochistan about special conditions in the province the meeting unanimously allowed him to hold the elections at least in six months if conditions for the present are not conducive. The meeting did not agree to his suggestion to defer the elections for a year. The meeting decided that the Punjab government will hold the LG elections in the province according to its own convenience.

The chief ministers of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan and concerned federal and provincial ministers and officials attended the meeting. President Asif Ali Zardari tasked the prime minister to convene an Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee meeting for suggesting ways to adopt a uniform policy on local government and police order.

The meeting also discussed political and developmental issues in NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan. According to sources the proposal for convening a meeting of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committe was given by Prime Minister Gilani to adopt a uniform policy on local government and police order.

The prime minister was of the view that rather than discussing the issue with the chief ministers separately it was better to convene their meeting to arrive at a consensus on adopting a uniform local government system in the country.

Sources said the prime minister cited the example of National Finance Commission and said that there was a show of flexibility and all the provinces agreed on the formula of distribution of resources in an amicable way.

Another such meeting could also evolve a consensus on this issue, which is not bigger than the distribution of resources. Sources said that President Zardari agreed to the proposal and assigned the prime minister to convene the meeting in a bid to formulate a uniform policy on local government and police order.

The meeting of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee has been called by early next week in which the chief ministers of all the four provinces would be present. The prime minister was tasked for evolving a consensus among all the provinces for the local government system with a view that he would convince the PML-N led Punjab government.

Giving details of the meeting, presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the chief ministers briefed the meeting about the current situation of local bodies in their respective provinces after December 31, 2009, the date on which the subject of local governments was deleted from the 6th schedule of the Constitution and reverted to the provinces as originally envisaged in the 1973 Constitution.

When asked about the absence of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif from the meeting Babar said originally the chief ministers of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan had sought time from the president for separate meetings but the president decided to give them time jointly. He said during the meeting chief ministers had given point of view of their respective provincial government regarding the local government system and police order.