Hours after Pakistan’s Supreme Court
ruling, the Election Commission of Pakistan or ECP issued the election schedule
for the general polls set to take place on February 8 in 2024, reported Dawn.
The polling process will begin on
December 19, when the returning officer (RO) will issue a public notice, while
the ECP will also resume training for the ROs and district returning officers
(DROs).
The election programme also applies to
the reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and four
provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
Notably, the commission issued the
election schedule late at night in line with the Supreme Court’s orders.
In a hiccup with the polling process,
the Lahore High Court suspended the commission’s notification for the
appointment of the ROs and DROs from the executive branch – in defiance of the
SC’s orders.
The Lahore High Court’s verdict was
issued on a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the same
party that had called for timely polls in a plea filed in the Supreme Court.
Following detailed deliberations, the
commission filed a petition in the top court seeking the annulment of the HC
order. The Pakistan SC accepted the plea a few hours back, putting the process
back on track.
Earlier, Pakistan President Arif Alvi
dissolved the National Assembly three days before the completion of its
five-year term, upon the advice of then-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The former government prematurely
dissolved the lower house to ensure that the polls were scheduled 90 days
later, in line with the Pakistan Constitution.
However, that didn’t happen, as ECP
stated that it couldn’t follow the 90-day deadline as it had to work on fresh
delimitation of constituencies after the Council of Common Interests (CCI)
approved the results of the 2023 digital census.
Following the ECP decision, Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaaf and several others filed a plea in the top court seeking
timely polls. On the same plea, the SC ordered the ECP and the president to
consult, which resulted in a consensus date of February 8.
ANI
